Bible Locations

The Jabbok, now called the Zarqa River, "blue river," is the second-largest eastern tributary of the Jordan, after the Yarmuk. It rises near Amman, curves north and then flows west through a deep valley into the Jordan, about 25 miles north of the Dead Sea. It divided the region of Gilead into northern and southern parts. At the ford of the Jabbok, Jacob wrestled all night with a man, was renamed Israel and called the place Peniel (Genesis 32:22-30). The Jabbok was the northern border of Sihon's kingdom and the border of the Ammonites (Numbers 21:24, Deuteronomy 3:16). In Judges 11, the Ammonite king claimed land "from the Arnon to the Jabbok." Near where it enters the Jordan Valley is Tell Deir Alla, possibly Succoth, where an inscription mentioning "Balaam son of Beor" was found in 1967. The King Talal Dam now controls its waters.