A river flowing west from its source near Rabbath-Ammon to empty into the Jordan River about 40 km north of the Dead Sea.
About Jabbok
Eastern tributary of the Jordan, the modern Nahr ez-Zerqa or Blue River. Its source is a spring near Amman, capital of modern Jordan (the Decapolis town of Philadelphia in Hellenistic times). From its source the Jabbok loops northeast before swinging west and cutting a valley that, characteristic of the east Jordan tributary streams, deepens into a canyon. It emerges from this ravine near Tell Deir Alla, which may be the ancient Succoth, quiets its flow, and joins the Jordan at ed-Damiyeh, the ancient Adam, some 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of the Dead Sea. The Jabbok ranks next to the Yarmuk, its more northerly companion stream, in the extent of its watershed, a region of well-watered territory blessed with an average rainfall of some 30 inches (76 centimeters) per year. The Jabbok has a fast, strong, perennial flow; over a large portion of its 60-mile (96.5-kilometer) course, the stream averages an 80-foot (24.4-meter) drop over each mile. The loop of the river north of Amman (biblical Rabbah) was an Ammonite frontier (Nm 21:24). The river separated the kingdoms of Sihon and Og (Jgs 11:19–22; cf. Dt 3:1–2, 8–10), land in Gilead that was later divided among the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh (Dt 3:12, 16; Jos 12:2–6).
See also Jordan River.
Key References
He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions.
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.
All Scripture References (7)
Genesis (1)
He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions.
Numbers (1)
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.
Deuteronomy (2)
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.
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)
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,
Judges (2)
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.”
seizing all the land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.