Bible Strands
Genesis 50:10
When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wailed loudly, and Joseph mourned for his father seven days.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the Egyptian procession arriving at a designated site while Joseph oversees the funeral rites for Jacob. This moment follows the departure of the military escort from Shechem and precedes the Canaanite observers' reaction.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַ/יִּסְפְּדוּ (va/i.Yis.pe.du) translates to "and they lamented," indicating structured mourning rites. The place name גֹּ֣רֶן הָ/אָטָ֗ד (Go.ren ha./'a.Tad) literally means "threshing floor of Atad."
The thread — Seven-day mourning periods appear in Job 2:13, where companions sit with Job, and in 2 Samuel 1:17, where David composes a formal lament. Communal burial and weeping reappear in Acts 8:2, where devout men mourn Stephen.
Why it lands — The text establishes the duration and public visibility of ancient Israelite and Egyptian funerary customs. It requires the reader to note how neighboring cultures interpret foreign rituals through their own linguistic categories.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
Cross-references
- Job 2:13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw how intense his suffering was.
- Acts 8:2 God-fearing men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him.
- 2 Samuel 1:17 Then David took up this lament for Saul and his son Jonathan,
- 1 Samuel 31:13 Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.
- Genesis 50:4 When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s court, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please tell Pharaoh that
- Genesis 50:11 When the Canaanites of the land saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a solemn ceremony of mourning by the Egyptians.” Thus the place across the Jordan is called Abel-mizraim.
- Numbers 19:11 Whoever touches any dead body will be unclean for seven days.
- Deuteronomy 1:1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan—in the Arabah opposite Suph—between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
- Deuteronomy 34:8 The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end.