JABBOK (rw, perhaps = pouring out ; ' 'Iap(inc and 'Ia136K ; Yaboe ; in Joseph. 'Iagdk-xos), a stream which falls into the Jordan from the east, about midway between the lake of Tiberias and Dead Sea. It was on the banks of the Jabbok that the remarkable interview took place between Jacob and Esau, on the return of the former from Padanaram (Gen. xxxii. 22). The stream is im portant in a geographical point of view, and a knowledge of its topography helps us to understand more easily some passages of Scripture. It was the boundary between the Amorites and the Ammonites. We are told that after the defeat of Sihon, king of the Amorites, at Jazer, Israel pos sessed his land from Arnon unto yabbok, even unto the children of Ammon ; for the border of the children of Ammon was strong ' (Num. xxi. 24). The Jabbok, flowing in a wild and deep ravine through the Gilead mountains, formed a strong natural frontier for the bordering principalities. It would seem that at the Exodus the Ammonites possessed the country eastward and northward of the upper sources and branches of the Jabbok, and that Sihon and Og occupied the whole region between the Ammonites and the Jordan, extending as far north as the Sea of Galilee (Josh. xii. 2-8 ; Joseph. Antiy. iv. 5. 2, and 3). The Israelites con quered Sihon and Og, and took their kingdoms ; and the possessions of the three tribes, thus ac quired, extended from the Dead Sea to Hermon ; but they were not perrnitted to touch the territory of Ammon (Dent. ii. 37 ; 16). About fifteen miles from the Jordan the Jabbok forks ; one branch coming down from Jerash on the north, and the other from Rabbath-Amman on the south ; these branches formed the western frontier of the Ammonites, dividing them from the Amorites, and subsequently from the Israelites (Reland, Pa4, p. ro3). Previous to the Exodus, the territory of the Ammonites was much more extensive, embracing the whole region between the Jabbok and the Arnon ; but the Amorites drove them out of that portion, and forced them into the mountains around the sources of the Jabbok, and into the plain eastwards (Judg. xi. 13, 22). Eusebius and
Jerome rightly describe the Jabbok as flowing be tween Ammon and Gerasa, and falling into the Jordan (Ononiast. s. v. Yabboch).
The Jabbok is now called Wady Zurka •).
Its sources are chiefly on the eastern side of the mountains of Gilead, and it also drains a portion of the high plateau of Arabia beyond. The upper branches and tributaries are mere winter streams. At the point where the two main branches from Jerash and Ammon unite, the stream becomes perennial ; and often, after heavy rain, is a foaming impassable torrent. The ravine through which it flows is narrow, deep, and in places wild. Through out nearly its whole course it is fringed by thickets of cane and oleander, and the large clustering flowers of the latter give the banks a gay and gorge ous appearance during the spring and early summer ' (Hana'book for S. and P., 3 ro). Higher up, the sides of the ravine are clothed with forests of ever green oak, pine, and arbutus ; and the undulating forest glades are carpeted with green grass, and strewn with innumerable wild flowers. The scenery along the banks of the Jabbok is probably the most picturesque in Palestine ; and the ruins of town and village and fortress which stud the sur rounding mountain sides render the country as interesting, as it is beautiful (See Burckhardt, Travels in Syria, p. 347; Irby and Mangles, Travels, 319, 1st ed. ; Lynch, Exi5edition to Dead I but unknown. The old name, however, is still p. 179, English ed.)—J. L. P.