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Bible Dictionaries
Abel-Mizraim
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or ("the mourning of the Egyptians" or "the funeral from Egypt".) The threshingfloor of Atad; so called by the Canaanites, because it was the chief scene of the funeral laments of Joseph and his Egyptian retinue for Jacob (Genesis 50:4-11). E. of Jordan. Moses, taking Canaan as the central standpoint of the whole history, uses the phrase "beyond Jordan" for east of it. The same route by which Joseph was led captive was, in the striking providence of God, that which they took to do honor to his deceased father, being the longer and more public way from Egypt to Canaan. God's eternal principle is, "them that honor Me I will honor." Jerome, however, places it at Beth-Hogla, now Ain Hajla, on the W. of Jordan, which would make Moses' standpoint in saying "beyond" the E. of Jordan; but Genesis 50:13 plainly shows it was not till after the mourning at Abel-Mizraim that "Jacob's sons carried him into the land of Canaan." The phrase, "Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh" implies that Pharaoh and his estates in council decreed a state funeral for Jacob, in which the princes, nobles, and chief men of Egypt, with their pomp of chariots and equipages, took part. The funeral celebration lasted for seven days. The usual Egyptian rites on such occasions consisted in banquets and games, as Egyptian monuments show. These having been completed at Atad, Jacob's sons proceeded alone to the cave of Machpelah, the final burying place of his embalmed body.
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Abel-Mizraim'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/a/abel-mizraim.html. 1949.
