Zamzummim

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

or ZUZIM, a gigantic race of people, who, together with the Rephaim and Emim, men of like stature, occupied, in the time of Abraham, the country east of Jordan and the Dead Sea, where they were routed by Chedorlaomer, and from which they were afterward expelled by the Ammonites,  Deuteronomy 2:20-21 . These, together with the Anakim, another family of giants, were all evidently of a race foreign to the original inhabitants of the countries where they were found; they were probably tribes of invading Cushites. The Vulgate and the Septuagint say, they were conquered with the Rephaim in Ashteroth-Karnaim. The Chaldee interpreters have taken Zuzim in the sense of an appellative, for stout and valiant men; and the Septuagint have rendered the word Zuzim, εθνη ισχυρα , robust nations. We meet with the word Zuzim only in   Genesis 14:5 .

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

ZAMZUMMIM . A name given by the conquering Ammonites to the Rephaim , the original inhabitants of the land (  Deuteronomy 2:20 ). They are described as a people ‘great and many and tall like the Anakim’ (see art. Rephaim). The name Zamzummim has been connected with Arab. [Note: Arabic.] zamzamah ‘a distant and confused noise,’ and with zizim , the sound of the jinn heard in the desert at night. The word may thus perhaps be translated ‘Whisperers,’ ‘Murmurers,’ and may denote the spirits of the giants supposed to haunt the hills and ruins of Eastern Palestine (cf. art. Zuzim).

W. F. Boyd.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Zamzum'mim.  Deuteronomy 2:20 only, the Ammonite name for the people who by others were called Rephaim. They are described as having originally been a powerful and numerous nation of giants. From a slight similarity between the two names, and from the mention of the Emim in connection with each, it is conjectured that the Zamzummim are identical with the Zuzim .

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

A race of giants east of the Jordan, defeated by Chedorlaomer,  Genesis 14:5 , and exterminated by the Ammonites, who possessed their territory until themselves subdued by Moses,  Deuteronomy 2:20-21 . See Ammonites , and Zuzim .

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Zamzummim ( Zam-Zŭm'Mim .)  Deuteronomy 2:20. The Ammonite name for the people who by others were called Rephaim.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Deuteronomy 2:20Rephaim

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Zamzummim', זִמְזמַּים ; Sept. Ζομζομμείν v.r. Ζοχομμίν , Vulg. Zomzommim, A.V. "Zamzummims"), the Ammonitish name for the people who by others (though who they were does not appear) were called Rephaim (q.v.) ( Deuteronomy 2:20 only). They are described as having originally been a powerful and numerous nation of giants — "great, many, and tall" — inhabiting the district which at the time of the Hebrew conquest was in the possession of the Ammonites, by whom the Zamzummim had a long time previously been destroyed. Where this district was it is not, perhaps, possible exactly to define; but it probably lay in the neighborhood of Rabbath-Ammon (the present Amman), the only city of the Ammonites of which the name or situation is preserved to us, and therefore eastward of that rich undulating country from which Moab had been forced by the Amorites (the modern Belka), and of the numerous towns of that country whose ruins and names are still encountered.

From a slight similarity between the two names, and from the mention of the Emim in connection with each, it is usually assumed that the Zamzummim are identical with the Zuzim (q.v.) (Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 410 a; Ewald, Gesch. 1, 308, note; Knobel, On  Genesis 14:5). Ewald further supports this by identifying Ham (q.v.), the capital city of the Zuzim ( Genesis 14:5), with Ammon. But at best the identification is very conjectural.

Various attempts have been made to explain the name: as, by comparison with the Arabic zamzam, "long-necked;" or samsam, "strong and big" (Simonis, Onomast. p. 135); or as "obstinate," from זָמִם (Luther), or as "noisy," from זַמְזִם (Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 419), or as onomatopoetic, intended to imitate the unintelligible jabber of foreigners. Michaelis ( Supplem. No. 629) playfully recalls the likeness of the name to that of the well Zen-Zem at Mecca, and suggests thereupon that the tribe may have originally come from Southern Arabia. Notwithstanding this banter, however, he ends his article with the following discreet words, "Nihil historiae, nihil originis populi novirmus fas sit etymolo gium aeque ignorare." See Journ. Sac. Lit. 1852, p. 366.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

zam - zum´im ( זמזמּים , zamzummı̄m ): A race of giants who inhabited the region East of the Jordan afterward occupied by the Ammonites who displaced them. They are identified with the Rephaim (  Deuteronomy 2:20 ). They may be the same as the Zuzim mentioned in connection with the Rephaim in  Genesis 14:5 . See Rephaim .