Abel-mizraim

Abel-mizraim ("mourning of Egypt") is the name the Canaanites gave to the threshing floor of Atad after they witnessed the spectacular Egyptian funeral procession bringing Jacob's body home for burial at the cave of Machpelah. Genesis 50:10-11 describes Joseph, his brothers, and "a very great company" of Egyptian chariots and elders pausing for seven days of formal mourning east of the Jordan: "the inhabitants of the land... said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim." The name preserves a Canaanite memory of Egyptian state mourning performed for an Israelite patriarch on the threshold of the Promised Land.