Mahanaim

Mahanaim (meaning two camps in Hebrew) is a place near Jabbok, beyond the Jordan River, mentioned a number of times by the Bible. The precise location of Mahanaim is very uncertain, the Biblical data being inconclusive. Although two possible sites have been identified, the one most widely accepted lies about ten miles east of the Jordan River. The other is located nine miles farther upstream on the Jabbok River itself. Mahanaim was in the same general area as Jabesh-gilead.

The location is first mentioned by the Bible as the place where Jacob, returning from Padan-aram to southern Canaan, had a vision of angels (Genesis 32:2). Jacob's realization that the place was "God's camp", led him to name the place Mahanaim - Two Camps, or Two Companies, to memorialize the occasion of his own company sharing the place with God's. Later in the story, Jacob is moved by fear at the approach of his brother (whom he has reason to fear) and as a result divided his retinue into two hosts (two companies), hence the town built on the site took two hosts as its name. This is regarded as a clear case of folk etymology for the place name by some, and although the form of the name appears to be dual (hence two ...), some at the present day prefer to regard the termination in this case as a corruption of a shorter ending. According to the Biblical narrative it became a Levitical city (Joshua 13:26, 13:30, 21:38; cf. 1 Chronicles 6:80).