The Hebrew Emim (אֵימִים) is the Moabite name for an ancient race of giants who inhabited the region east of the Jordan before the time of Abraham. The name likely derives from emah (terror/dread), meaning 'the fearsome ones' or 'the terrifying ones.' They were said to be as tall as the Anakim — the giants who also terrified Israel's spies.
The Emim represent the category of formidable obstacles that only divine power can overcome. The land was filled with fearsome peoples — Emim, Anakim, Rephaim, Nephilim — and the natural human response was fear and despair ('We seemed like grasshoppers,' Num 13:33). But the biblical narrative insists that these giants were swept away by God acting on behalf of His people. The Moabites called them Emim; the Ammonites called similar peoples Zamzummim — but God drove them out. What terrifies humans, God removes. The giant that makes you feel like a grasshopper is never bigger than your God.