Numbers 21:24

24. Jabbok This is one of the two important streams flowing into the Jordan on the east. It was the scene of Jacob’s wrestling with the angel, and of his meeting with Esau. See Genesis 30:22; Joshua 12:2, notes.

Unto the children of Ammon This difficult passage is thus explained. The Ammonites at one time possessed the whole country between the rivers Arnon and Jabbok. Being driven out by Sihon they took possession of the eastern plain and the eastern defiles of Gilead, around the sources and upper branches of the Jabbok. For this reason the border of the children of Ammon was strong, that is, well fortified, so that Sihon had only been able to push his conquests to the upper Jabbok, not into the territory of the Ammonites which Israel was forbidden by Jehovah to enter. See Deuteronomy 2:19.