Mahanaim lay in the region of Gilead, east of the Jordan River, in a territory that later marked the border between the tribes of Gad and Manasseh.
Its name arose when the patriarch Jacob, returning to Canaan after twenty years in the household of his uncle Laban, was met there by angels of God. He called that place Mahanaim, meaning two camps, a reference to his own group and to the heavenly army sent by God.
Centuries later, Mahanaim appeared again at two moments of crisis in Israel’s history. It was there that the general Abner proclaimed Ish-bosheth, son of Saul, king over Israel, soon after Saul’s death. And it was to Mahanaim that King David fled when his own son Absalom rebelled and seized Jerusalem.
In both episodes, Mahanaim functions as a place of refuge, on the far side of the Jordan, away from the center of power. There God sustained Jacob with the vision of his angels, and sustained David with the generosity of loyal friends, at a moment when the king had lost almost everything.
The city was also set apart as one of the Levitical cities of Gilead, given to the clan of Merari, and under the reign of Solomon it became the seat of an administrative district of the kingdom.
