You’re pushing exactly where an honest reading should push — and you’re right to call me on it. Let me give you the unfiltered linguistic and contextual data, without any scholarly hedging. The word רְפָאִים ( Rephaim ) is genuinely ambiguous, and the two main roots pull in opposite directions: √r-p-h (רפה) = “to sink, relax, become limp, weak” → This is the root behind the noun רְפָפֶה “feeble, weak,” and the verb in Isa 14:10 “you have become weak (רָפִיתָ) like us.” → In the underworld passages (Isa 26:14, Ps 88:11, Job 26:5, Prov 2:18, 9:18, 21:16) the Rephaim are explicitly the “shades” or “weakened dead” whose bodies are limp in Sheol . √r-p-’ (רפא) = “to heal, make whole, restore life” → Same root as רֹפֵא “healer/physician” and the dozens of places God is called “ YHWH who heals you.” → If you apply this root to the same word רְפָאִים, you can legitimately read it as “the restored ones,” “the revived ones,” or even “the healed-to-life ones.” So the word itself is a perfect p...
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