Genesis 50:7-11

"And Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the house of Joseph and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company. And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days. 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 the Jordan."

The sheer size of this great pageant was most impressive. The houses of Jacob, and the brothers, especially that of Joseph, and of all of Pharaoh's principal ministers and officers constituted in the aggregate an immense company. It is most apparent in this that Pharaoh did not grudgingly consent for Joseph to leave the capital and go to the land of Canaan to bury Jacob, but on the other hand supported the mission approvingly. Josephus tells us that all of this was done "at great expense."[11]

In the Old Testament, the perspective "beyond" practically always means "west of"; and therefore it must be understood here as an indication that the funeral cortege entered the land of Canaan from the eastward. We are not told why this circuitous route was taken, but it is certain that good reasons dictated this. "There may have been some political complications had this company taken the usual well-traveled route to Canaan."[12] Keil did not accept the conclusion received here, namely that the floor of Atad was west of the Jordan, basing his objection on the fact that Genesis 50:12 states that Jacob's sons "carried him into the land of Canaan," but what Keil overlooked is the fact that in all probability Jacob's sons (who carried their father throughout the journey) had already done this, the thing meant in Genesis 50:12 being that they carried him further into the land of Canaan to the cave of Machpelah. This slight misplacement of such a detail as this is absolutely in keeping with the Biblical style throughout. In fact, Genesis 50:12 and Genesis 50:13 are a summary of what was done.