‘And he rose up that night and took his two wives and his two handmaids and his eleven sons and passed over the Ford of Jabbok. And he took them and sent them over the stream and sent over what he had.'
The verse hides a more complicated manoeuvre. Jacob wants to see everyone and everything safely over the ford and he himself no doubt crossed it a number of times both ways. It was a difficult river to cross. But he himself finally remains on the side away from the others. The repetition is typical of much ancient literature where hearers rather than readers had to be kept in mind. Movement at night was commonplace for caravans and for herdsmen and shepherds. It avoided the heat of the day.
“Eleven sons.” Only the sons are in mind. Dinah is ignored. Daughters are regularly ignored in ancient literature as unimportant. Dinah had only been mentioned previously to make up the number ‘twelve' as we have seen.
“The Ford of Jabbok.” A place where it was possible to cross the swiftly flowing river which Jacob has called the Jordan, being its tributary. This river flows through a deep gorge and is difficult to cross. This tributary flows east of the Jordan.