Machanayim

מחנים

Genesis 32:3: fleeing from his father-in-law Lavan (Laban), Ya'akov (Jacob) was met here by "angels of Elohim"; though this story is based on a very late meaning of the word - the very concept of angels does not enter the Beney Yisra-El zeitgeist until the time of the exile in Persia, around 550 BCE.

Joshua 13:26 places it in the territory of Gad, on the border of Menasheh, which is to say on the southern Golan Heights, about half-way between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, on the eastern side of the river Yarden (Jordan) facing Shechem (today's Nablus).

Joshua 21:38 names it as a refuge city of the Beney Levi.

2 Samuel 2:8 ff/29: Ish-Boshet, Sha'ul's surviving son, was brought there after the king's death.

2 Samuel 17:23 ff, David fled there from Av-Shalom.

1 Kings 4:14: Achi-Nadav ben Ido (אֲחִינָדָב בֶּן-עִדֹּא) became prince of Machanayim under Shelomoh (Solomon).

Machaneh (מחנה) = "a camp", whether of soldiers or, more often, a caravanserai for travellers; the term is used for a band of men or a herd of cattle, and even for a swarm of locusts and the heavenly host.

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