with its deep rocky valley formed at that time the boundary between the kingdoms of Sihon at Heshbon and Og of Bashan. It now separates the countries of Moerad or Ajlun and Belka. The ford by which Jacob crossed was hardly the one which he took on his outward journey, upon the Syrian caravan-road by Kalaat-Zerka, but one much farther to the west, between Jebel Ajlun and Jebel Jelaad, through which Buckingham, Burckhardt, and Seetzen passed; and where there are still traces of walls and buildings to be seen, and other marks of cultivation.
Verse 25
When Jacob was left alone on the northern side of the Jabbok, after sending all the rest across, “ there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” נאבק, an old word, which only occurs here (Gen 32:25, Gen 32:26), signifying to wrestle, is either derived from אבק to wind, or related to חבק to contract one's self, to plant limb and limb firmly together. From this wrestling the river evidently received its name of Jabbok (יבּק = יאבּק).
verses 26-30
“ And when He (the unknown) saw that He did not overcome him, He touched his hip-socket; and his hip-socket was put out of joint (תּקע from רקע) as He wrestled with him.” Still Jacob would not let Him go until He blessed him. He then said to Jacob, “ They name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel (ישׂראל, God's fighter, from שׂרה to fight, and אל God); for thou hast fought with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” When Jacob asked Him His name, He declined giving any definite answer, and “ blessed him there.” He did not tell him His name; not merely, as the angel stated to Manoah in reply to a similar question (Jdg 13:18), because it was פּלא wonder, i.e., incomprehensible to mortal man, but still more to fill Jacob's soul with awe at the mysterious character of the whole event, and to lead him to take it to heart. What Jacob wanted to know, with regard to the person of the wonderful Wrestler, and the meaning and intention of the struggle, he must already have suspected, when he would not let Him go until He blessed him; and it was put before him still more plainly in the new name that was given to him with this explanation, “ Thou hast fought with Elohim and with men, and hast conquered.” God had met him in the form of a man: God in the angel, according to Hos 12:4-5, i.e., not in a created angel, but in the Angel of Jehovah, the visible manifestation of the invisible God. Our history does not speak of Jehovah,
