One of the four main rivers draining the TransJordan plateau, the Jabbok drains into the River Jordan about halfway in its course from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. Called the Zerka today, the river served in ancient times as the boundary between Ammon and the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan. Once the conquered land was divided among the two and a half TransJordanian tribes, it served as the boundary between the Reubenites-Gadites with Manasseh and the Ammonites (Deut 3:16).
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CONCORDANCE (NIV)
The river is mentioned 7x in the OT.
Gen 32:22 — That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
Num 21:24 — Israel, however, put him [King Sihon] to the sword and took over his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, but only as far as the Ammonites, because their border was fortified.
Deut 2:37 — But in accordance with the command of the Lord our God, you did not encroach on any of the land of the Ammonites, neither the land along the course of the Jabbok nor that around the towns in the hills.
Deut 3:16 — But to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the territory extending from Gilead down to the Arnon Gorge (the middle of the gorge being the border) and out to the Jabbok River, which is the border of the Ammonites.
Jos 12:2 — Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon. He ruled from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge—from the middle of the gorge—to the Jabbok River, which is the border of the Ammonites. This included half of Gilead.
Judg 11:13 — The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah's messengers, "When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably."
Judg 11:(21-)22 — "Then the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his men into Israel's hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all the land of the Amorites who lived in that country, capturing all of it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan. . . .
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