Genesis 50:11 - Exposition

And when (literally, and ) the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they (literally, and they ) said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim, — i.e. the meadow ( אָבֵל ) of the Egyptians, with a play upon the word ( אֵבֶל ) mourning (Keil, Kurtz, Gerlach, Rosenmüller, &c.;), if indeed the word has not been punctuated wrongly— אָבֵל instead of אֵבֶל (Kalisch), which latter reading appears to have been followed by the LXX . (πένθος Αἰγύπτου) and the Vulgate ( planctus AE gypti )— which is beyond Jordan ( vide supra).