PENUEL

(Pe·nuʹel) [face of God].

1. “Father of Gedor” in the tribe of Judah. (1 Chron. 4:1, 4) Since Gedor appears as the name of a town in Judah, Penuel may have been its founder or the ancestor of its inhabitants.

2. A family head in the tribe of Benjamin who lived in Jerusalem; son of Shashak.—1 Chron. 8:1, 25, 28.

3. The place near the ford of the Jabbok River where Jacob wrestled with the angel; hence he called the place Peniel (Penuel) because there he ‘had seen God face to face.’ (Gen. 32:22-31) In the time of the Judges, Gideon asked the men of Penuel for food in order that his forces might continue after the kings of Midian, but the Penuelites refused, for which reason Gideon later destroyed their tower and killed all their men. (Judg. 8:4-9, 17) Nothing more is mentioned of Penuel until King Jeroboam I “built” it again, or at least fortified it.—1 Ki. 12:25.

Penuel is generally identified with Tulul edh-Dhahab, about four miles (6.4 kilometers) E of Succoth on the Jabbok River some nine miles (14.5 kilometers) or so NE of its confluence with the Jordan. Indications are that it was heavily fortified and strategically positioned so as to control the entrance of the Jabbok gorge leading westward down to the Jordan. Similarly spelled names are found in Assyrian and Egyptian records relating to Palestine.