Genèse 50:10

10 Arrivés à l'aire d'Athad, qui est au delà du Jourdain, ils firent entendre de grandes et profondes lamentations; et Joseph fit en l'honneur de son père un deuil de sept jours.

Genèse 50:10 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 50:10

And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad
Which was either the name of a man the owner of it, or of a place so called from the thorns and brambles which grew here, and with which the threshingfloor was surrounded, as Jarchi says, see ( Judges 9:14 ) ( Psalms 58:9 ) and it was usual to make a hedge of thorns round about a threshingfloor ^F15, that it might be preserved; mention is made in the Talmud ^F16 of the wilderness of Atad, perhaps so called from the thorns and brambles in it: Jerom says ^F17 it was three miles from Jericho and two from Jordan, and was in his time called Bethagla, the place of a circuit, because there they went about after the manner of mourners at the funeral of Jacob. This, according to some ^F18, was two hundred and forty miles from On, where Joseph was supposed to live, sixteen from Jerusalem, and forty from Hebron, where Jacob was buried: nay, Austin

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 says it was above fifty miles from that place, as affirmed by those who well knew those parts: which is beyond Jordan;
as it was to those that came out of Egypt: and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation;
being now entered into the country where the corpse was to be interred; and perhaps they might choose to stop here and express tokens of mourning, that the inhabitants might be apprised of their design in coming, which was not to invade them and make war upon them, only to bury their dead: this mourning seems to be made chiefly by the Egyptians, which was done in an external way, and it may be by persons brought with them for that purpose; since both the name of the place after given was from their mourning there, and the mourning of Joseph is next observed as distinct from theirs: and he made a mourning for his father seven days;
which was the time of mourning, afterwards observed by the Jews, see ( 1 Samuel 31:13 ) , this Joseph ordered and observed after he had buried his father, as Aben Ezra says, is affirmed by their ancient Rabbins, and perhaps might be at this same place upon their return.
F15 T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 13. 1. & Gloss. in ib. Aruch in voc. (Nrg) fol. 39. 4.
F16 T. Hieros. Nedarim, fol. 40. 1.
F17 De locis Heb. fol. 87. G.
F18 Bunting's Travels, p. 79, 80.
F19 Quaest. is Gen. l. 1. p. 54. "inter opera ejus", tom. 4.

Genèse 50:10 In-Context

8 toute la maison de Joseph, ses frères, et la maison de son père: on ne laissa dans le pays de Gosen que les enfants, les brebis et les boeufs.

9 Il y avait encore avec Joseph des chars et des cavaliers, en sorte que le cortège était très nombreux.

10 Arrivés à l'aire d'Athad, qui est au delà du Jourdain, ils firent entendre de grandes et profondes lamentations; et Joseph fit en l'honneur de son père un deuil de sept jours.

11 Les habitants du pays, les Cananéens, furent témoins de ce deuil dans l'aire d'Athad, et ils dirent: Voilà un grand deuil parmi les Egyptiens! C'est pourquoi l'on a donné le nom d'Abel-Mitsraïm à cette aire qui est au delà du Jourdain.

12 C'est ainsi que les fils de Jacob exécutèrent les ordres de leur père.