Genesis 50:11
And 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. And 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.
The verse belongs to the Book of Beginnings at the close of the story of Joseph and his brothers, an interesting and helpful story full of surface lessons and deeper ones. It is part of the account in Genesis 46 to 50 of Israel's journey to Egypt, their reception by Joseph and Pharaoh, Jacob's prophetic blessing upon Joseph's sons and his own sons, and Jacob's death and burial. In this mourning and burial is seen God's care and providential preservation of the progenitors of the Seed, the descendants of Israel.
The mention of Egyptian mourning bears on the identification of Mizraim with Egypt, for Ham and his son Mizraim have names associated with Egypt. The Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw the Egyptians mourning at the floor or threshingfloor of Atad, called it a grievous mourning, and therefore the place was called Abel-mizraim, meaning the mourning of the Egyptians. That mourning was widespread and striking, and it showed the impression the Israelites had made upon Egypt.
The one mourned and buried here is Jacob, whose splendid funeral procession traveled to the distant land of Canaan to the burial place, where he was buried in the cave of Machpelah beside his father. Those who held the other reading understood the one mourned at Atad to be Joseph. The care for and burial of a father in this episode shows that honoring parents was part of the patriarchal life governed by God's moral law. Joseph's history illustrates that God may lead a person by a winding course yet guide him to the purpose intended for him.