Genesis 32:21-23 - Exposition

So (literally, and) went the present over Before him: and himself lodged that night in the company. And he rose up that night ,— i . e . some time before daybreak ( vide Genesis 32:24 ) and took his two wives, and him two women servants (Bilhah and Zilpah), and his eleven sons (Dinah being not mentioned in accordance with the common usage of the Bible), and passed over the ford —the word signifies a place of passing over. Tristram speaks of the strong current reaching the horses girths at the ford crossed by himself and twenty horsemen— Jabbok . Jabbok, from bakak , to empty, to pour forth (Kalisch), or from abak , to struggle (Keil), may have been so named either from the natural appearance of the river, or, as is more probable, by prolepsis from the wrestling which took place upon its banks. It is now called the Wady Zerka , or Blue River, which flows into the Jordan, nearly opposite Shechem, and midway between the Lake Tiberias and the Dead Sea. The stream is rapid, and often Completely hidden by the dense mass of oleander which fringes its banks. And he took them, and sent them (literally, caused them to pass ) over the brook, and sent over that he had —himself remaining on the north side (Delitzsch, Keil, Kurtz, Murphy, Gerlach, Wordsworth, Alford), although, having once crossed the stream ( Genesis 32:22 ), it is not perfectly apparent that he recrossed, which has led some to argue that the wrestling occurred on the south of the river (Knobel, Rosenmüller, Lange, Kalisch).