Meadow of the Egyptians; so called from the seven days' lamentation of Joseph and his company, on bringing up the body of Jacob from Egypt for burial, Ge 50:10-11. It lay in the plain of Jericho, between that city and the Jordan.

A'bel-mizra'im

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 Ge 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: cf. Ge 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.

A'bel-mizra'im

(meadow of Egypt), the name given by the Canaanites to the floor of Atad, at which Joseph, his brothers and the Egyptians made their mourning for Jacob.

Ge 50:11

It was beyond (on the east of) Jordan. See ATAD. (Schaff and others say it was on the west bank, for the writer was on the east of Jordan. It was near Jericho, or perhaps Hebron.)

See Atad