mahanaim Summary and Overview

two camps, a place near the Jabbok, beyond Jordan, where Jacob was met by the "angels of God," and where he divided his retinue into "two hosts" on his return from Padan-aram (Gen. 32:2). This name was afterwards given to the town which was built at that place. It was the southern boundary of Bashan (Josh. 13:26, 30), and became a city of the Levites (21:38). Here Saul's son Ishbosheth reigned (2 Sam. 2:8, 12), while David reigned at Hebron. Here also, after a troubled reign, Ishbosheth was murdered by two of his own bodyguard (2 Sam. 4:5-7), who brought his head to David at Hebron, but were, instead of being rewarded, put to death by him for their cold-blooded murder. Many years after this, when he fled from Jerusalem on the rebellion of his son Absalom, David made Mahanaim, where Barzillai entertained him, his headquarters, and here he mustered his forces which were led against the army that had gathered around Absalom. It was while sitting at the gate of this town that tidings of the great and decisive battle between the two hosts and of the death of his son Absalom reached him, when he gave way to the most violent grief (2 Sam. 17:24-27). The only other reference to Mahanaim is as a station of one of Solomon's purveyors (1 Kings 4:14). It has been identified with the modern Mukhumah, a ruin found in a depressed plain called el-Bukie'a, "the little vale," near Penuel, south of the Jabbok, and NE of es-Salt.

a town on the east of the Jordan. The name signifies two hosts or two camps,and was given to it by Jacob, because he there met "the angels of God." #Ge 32:1,2| We next meet with it in the records of the conquest. #Jos 13:26,30| It was within the territory of Gad, #Jos 21:38,39| and therefore on the south side of the torrent Jabbok. The town with its "suburbs" was allotted to the service of the Merarite Levites. #Jos 21:39; 1Ch 6:80| Mahanaim had become in the time of the monarchy a place of mark. #2Sa 2:8,12| David took refuge there when driven out of the western part of his kingdom by Absalom. #2Sa 17:24; 1Ki 2:8| Mahanaim was the seat of one of Solomon's commissariat officers. #1Ki 4:14| and it is alluded to in the song which bears his name. ch. #So 6:13| There is a place called Mahneh among the villages of the part of Jordan, through its exact position is not certain.

MAHANA'IM (two camps), a town east of the Jordan; named by Jacob. Gen 32:1-2. It was assigned to the Levites, Josh 13:26, 1 Kgs 20:30; Josh 21:38;1 Chr 6:80, and lay within the territory of Gad, north of the torrent Jabbok. Mahanaim became in the time of the monarchy a place of mark. 2 Sam 2:9, 2 Sam 2:12; 2 Sam 4:6. Abner fixed Ishbosheth's residence there, and David took refuge in it when driven out of the western part of his kingdom by Absalom. 2 Sam 17:24; 1 Kgs 2:8. Mahanaim was the seat of one of Solomon's commissariat officers, 1 Kgs 4:14, and it is alluded to in his Song, Song 6:13. Dr. Merrill locates Mahanaim in the Jordan valley, 6 miles north of the Jabbok, at a ruin called Saleikhat. Here water is abundant; the ruins are extensive and about 300 feet above the plain and near the dividing line between Gad and Manasseh. It answers the biblical requirement better than other suggested sites, like Mahneh and Gerasa.

("Two camps or hosts".) A place on the Jabbok so-called by Jacob from the two angelic hosts which appeared to him when returning from Padan Aram to Canaan. (See JACOB.) The two may refer to Jacob's own camp and that of the angels, or rather his division of his party into two, corresponding to which were the two angelic companies, one to guard each. The Speaker's Commentary less probably makes it, the angels were on his right and his left. Mahanaim was in Gad; assigned to the Levites (Joshua 21:38-39). Now Mahneh, on a tributary of the Yabis, which Paine identifies with the Jabbok. The correspondence is striking between the human and the divine, the visible and the invisible agencies in this remarkable history. Jacob's two companies answer to the two heavenly ones, the face of God and the face of Esau; seeing that first prepares Jacob for seeing this; the messengers of God and those of Jacob; and the name Jabbok, i.e. wrestling, marking the scene of the patriarch's wrestling with the Lord. Here Abner fixed the seat of Ishbosheth's kingdom, being unable to wrest the towns of Ephraim or Benjamin from the Philistines (2 Samuel 2:8-9). Here Ishbosheth was murdered (2 Samuel 4:5). Here David fled from Absalom, for it was then Walled and large enough to contain David's "hundreds" and "thousands." It had its gates and watchmen (2 Samuel 17:24; 2 Samuel 18:1-4; 1 Kings 2:8). One of Solomon's commissariat officers was at Mahanaim (1 Kings 4:14.) The Shulamite, i.e. Solomon's bride, the church, is compared to "the company of two armies" (margin, "Mahanaim," Song of Solomon 6:13). Though "one" (Song of Solomon 6:9) she is nevertheless "two," the family of Jesus Christ in heaven and that on earth, that militant and that triumphant. Her strength, like Jacob's at Mahanaim, is Christ and His hosts enlisted on her side by wrestling prayer.