Hebrew word · H2999

יַבֹּק

yabok

Jabbok

A proper name: the Jabbok, today the Nahr ez-Zarqa ('Blue River') in Jordan. It is an eastern tributary that joins the Jordan roughly midway between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.

Appears 7 times in 7 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Jabbok = "emptying"

a stream which intersects the mountain range of Gilead, and falls into the Jordan on the east about midway between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Genesis 32:22

Range of meaning

A proper name: the Jabbok, today the Nahr ez-Zarqa ('Blue River') in Jordan. It is an eastern tributary that joins the Jordan roughly midway between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.

Against the English

In English it is just a name. In Hebrew it sounds like Ya'aqov (Jacob) and like the rare verb ye'aveq, 'he wrestled', which appears in vv. 24–25 and almost nowhere else.

Used elsewhere in the period

Elsewhere the Jabbok works as a border: the northern limit of Sihon's kingdom and the frontier of Ammon (Num 21:24; Deut 2:37; 3:16; Josh 12:2; Judg 11:13, 22).

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 32:22 יַבֹּֽק׃ Jabbok

    During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

    Here: The river that cuts east to west through the hills of Gilead into the Jordan. Its name sounds like Ya'aqov (Jacob) and like ye'aveq, 'he wrestled' (v. 24). The place-name sets up the struggle about to happen.

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 21:24 יַבֹּק֙ Jabbok

    And Israel put him to the sword and took possession of his land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok—but only up to the border of the Ammonites, because it was fortified.

    Here: The Jabbok (today's Nahr ez-Zarqa), the river flowing west into the Jordan about 40 km north of the Dead Sea. It is the northern limit. It is also where Jacob wrestled (Gen 32:22).

Deuteronomy · 2

  1. Deuteronomy 2:37 יַבֹּק֙ Jabbok

    But you did not go near the land of the Ammonites, or the land along the banks of the Jabbok River, or the cities of the hill country, or any place that the LORD our God had forbidden.

    Here: Today's Nahr ez-Zarqa. Its upper course bends north past Rabbah, and that stretch formed Ammon's western edge. This is the place where Jacob wrestled (Genesis 32:22).

  2. Deuteronomy 3:16 יַבֹּ֣ק Jabbok

    and to the Reubenites and Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead to the Arnon Valley (the middle of the valley was the border) and up to the Jabbok River, the border of the Ammonites.

Joshua · 1

  1. Joshua 12:2 יַבֹּ֣ק Jabbok

    Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. He ruled from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along the middle of the valley, up to the Jabbok River (the border of the Ammonites), that is, half of Gilead,

    Here: Modern Nahr ez-Zarqa, the river where Jacob wrestled (Gen 32:22). Its lower course was Sihon's northern limit, and its upper course bent around the Ammonite heartland.

Judges · 2

  1. Judges 11:13 הַיַּבֹּ֖ק the Jabbok

    The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they seized my land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and all the way to the Jordan. Now, therefore, restore it peaceably.”

  2. Judges 11:22 הַיַּבֹּ֔ק the Jabbok

    seizing all the land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.