And when Jacob saw them, he said, This [is] God's host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
Ver. 2. This is God's host.] So called, for their number, order, obedience, strength, &c. God hath a complete host of horse and foot. Angels, and heavenly bodies, are his horse, as it were; "horses and chariots of fire"; 2Ki 6:17 yea, both horse and foot: for there are whole "legions" of them. Mat 26:53 Now a legion is judged to be six thousand foot, and seven hundred horse. Daniel tells us, there be millions of angels, Dan 7:10 yea, "an innumerable company," saith the author to the Hebrews. Heb 12:22 The Greek poet could say, There were thirty thousands of them here upon earth, keepers of mortal men, and observers of their works: a some think they are meant in the parable, by the ninety and nine sheep; as if they were ninety and nine times as many as mankind in number. All these, how many soever, pitch camp round about the godly, Psa 34:7 make a lane for them, as they did here for Jacob at Mahanaim (which signifies a double camp), fight in battle array against their enemies, Dan 10:20 and convey them at death, as they did Lazarus, through their enemies' country, the air, into Abraham's bosom. Luk 16:22 So that all God's children may call death, as Jacob did this place, Mahanaim; because there the angels meet them. And as the palsied man, in the gospel, was let down with his bed through the tiling before Jesus, Luk 5:19 so is every good soul taken up in a heavenly couch (or coach, rather) through the roof of his house, and carried into Christ's presence, by the blessed angels.
a Tρις γαρ μυριοι εισις επι χθονι πουλυβοτειρη Dαιμονες αθανατοι, φυλακες μεροπψν ανθρωπων. - Hesiod.