Zamzummims(zuzims)
Summary
A race of giants who inhabited the territory later occupied by the Ammonites, apparently identical with the Zuzim mentioned in Genesis.
☩Identity and Location
The Zamzummims were a giant race dwelling anciently in the territory that the Ammonites later occupied, east of the Jordan River. They appear to be the same people as the Zuzim mentioned in Genesis 14:5, whom Chedorlaomer and the eastern kings defeated in Ham. The name 'Zamzummims' was apparently the Ammonite designation for these giants, whom Moses elsewhere calls Rephaim.
☩Destruction
According to Deuteronomy, God destroyed the Zamzummims before the Ammonites, enabling the sons of Lot to dispossess them and dwell in their place. Like the Anakim, they were considered Rephaim—a people great, numerous, and tall—yet the Lord annihilated them. By the time of Moses, this giant race had become extinct.
References
- 1.John Kitto, "Zamzummims," in A Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, vol. II (Mark H. Newman, 1845).
- 2.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Zamzummims," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).