Abel-mizraim

Narrator: Chris Genthree
Duration: 1min
 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 9
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This signifies, with the Hebrew points, “meadow of the Egyptians”; but “mourning of the Egyptians” if read without or with different points. The context in Genesis 50:1111And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond Jordan. (Genesis 50:11) indicates “mourning” as a part of the name. It was the threshing floor of Atad “beyond Jordan.” This would seem to place the seven days’ mourning on the east of Jordan, before the body was carried into Canaan, for interment (compare Gen. 50:12-1312And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them: 13For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre. (Genesis 50:12‑13)). But some hold that Moses by “beyond Jordan” signifies the west because of his standpoint being on the east. The inhabitants of the land being called Canaanites also points to the west; and it is remarkable that Jerome uses a similar expression in “trans-Jordanem,” and then states that ATAD, which is the same place, was between the Jordan and Jericho. It is not identified.