“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 Jordan.”
When the Canaanites who lived there saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said: the Egyptians are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning. That is why that place near the Jordan is called Abel Mizraim. Abel Mizraim means meadow of Egypt or mourning of Egypt. The naming of the mourning site by the Canaanite witnesses is the outside community's testimony to the significance of what they observed. The application: the mourning that is witnessed and named by those outside the covenant community is the mourning that leaves a mark on the landscape.
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