Machbanai is a name found in the King James Bible, appearing 1 time in the text.
Who This Was
Machbanai was one of David’s mighty warriors, numbered among the elite guard who served the king. He appears in 1 Chronicles 12, in the roster of fighting men who came to David at Ziklag while he was still kept from the presence of Saul son of Kish. These were the men who strengthened David’s hand and helped establish him as king over Israel, at a time when he was a fugitive and a claimant to the throne rather than a reigning monarch.
In the listing, Machbanai is named eleventh, following Jeremiah the tenth. The passage identifies him simply as “Machbanai the eleventh,” with no further description of his deeds, his family, or his origin. What Scripture records of him is his place in that company: he was counted among the warriors who stood with David in the wilderness years, before the kingdom was secure.
The text says nothing more about him. He did not receive a narrative of his own, no battle is attributed to him by name, and no words of his are preserved. He is known only as one of the mighty men—a single line in a long roll of the faithful. Yet that line places him among those who risked their lives for David and, by extension, for the purposes of God in raising up a king for Israel.
The Name
The name Machbanai is a Hebrew name, but its meaning is not clearly recoverable from the text or from the standard lexical evidence. It appears only here in the King James Bible, and no root or derivation is stated in Scripture. Some Hebrew names can be confidently traced to a verbal root or a compound of divine names, but for Machbanai no such derivation is well established. It is best to say plainly that the meaning of this name is uncertain, and that any proposed definition should be treated as conjecture rather than fact.
A Closing Thought
Most of us will never have our names written into a record that outlasts us. Machbanai is remembered in a single sentence, yet that sentence is enough: he was there, he stood with David, he was counted among the mighty. Faithfulness does not require a famous story. It requires showing up when the king is still in the wilderness and the outcome is not yet clear. Whatever our part, large or small, it is held in the same roll of the faithful.
At a Glance
- Gender: Male
- Testament: Old
- Mentions in the KJV: 1
Where It Appears in Scripture
- 1 Chronicles 12:13 — Jeremiah the tenth, Machbanai the eleventh.