ma.cha.na.yim is a proper name for a named location, appearing in travel, boundary, civic, and royal narratives.

The attested forms are all tagged as a proper noun and designate the same named location: people travel to or from it, territorial descriptions begin or extend from it, and it is named in civic and royal settings.

1. A named location · dominant

   The proper-noun form identifies a destination or point of departure in movements of people: in 2 Samuel 2:12 the APB renders Abner and Ish-bosheth's servants going out “from Mahanaim to Gibeon,” and in 2 Samuel 17:24 it renders David arriving there. It also marks a territorial point in Joshua 13:26 and Joshua 13:30, while 1 Kings 4:14 presents it as the place under Ahinadab's charge.

   2 Samuel 2:122 Samuel 17:24Joshua 13:26Joshua 13:301 Kings 4:14Joshua 21:38

In the Anselm Project Bible: Where the name is explicit, the APB generally presents it as “Mahanaim,” including movements “from Mahanaim” and arrivals “at Mahanaim.” In some supplied verses, such as Genesis 32:3 and 1 Chronicles 6:65, the whole-verse translation does not visibly reproduce the name, so its individual rendering cannot be isolated from the translation.