A deep river-gorge east of the Jordan, a tributary running down to it through Gilead — and the scene of the most famous night of Jacob's life. Its Hebrew name, YABBOQ, chimes with both Ya'aqov ('Jacob') and the verb of that night, vayye'aveq, 'and he WRESTLED' (32:23-25): at the ford of the Jabbok, Jacob wrestles a man until dawn and is renamed Israel. Two other names cluster at the crossing: just before it he had met the angels and called the place MAHANAIM ('two camps,' 32:2-3), and after the wrestling he named the very spot PENIEL / Penuel, 'the Face of God,' 'for I have seen God face to face, and my life was delivered' (32:31). The river later marks a boundary of the Ammonites and of the Amorite kingdom of Sihon.