Jacob’s Funeral Cortege Stops to Mourn at Goren-haʿatad, Near Gaza

After Jacob dies, Joseph and the brothers bring his body from Egypt to be buried in the Machpelah Cave in Hebron.^[1] On the way, they stop for a seven-day mourning period at Goren-haʿatad:

^{בראשית נ:י} וַיָּבֹ֜אוּ עַד־גֹּ֣רֶן הָאָטָ֗ד אֲשֶׁר֙ בְּעֵ֣בֶר הַיַּרְדֵּ֔ן וַיִּ֨סְפְּדוּ־שָׁ֔ם מִסְפֵּ֛ד גָּד֥וֹל וְכָבֵ֖ד מְאֹ֑ד וַיַּ֧עַשׂ לְאָבִ֛יו אֵ֖בֶל שִׁבְעַ֥ת יָמִֽים:

^{Gen 50:10} When they came to Goren-haʿatad, which is beyond the Jordan, they held there a very great and solemn lamentation; and he observed a mourning period of seven days for his father.

Goren-haʿatad means “threshing floor protected by briars.”^[2] Threshing floors were typically situated on the outskirts of a town or village (in a place exposed to the wind), as noted in the Mishnah:

^{משנה בבא בתרא ב:ח} מַרְחִיקִין גֹּרֶן קְבוּעָה מִן הָעִיר חֲמִשִּׁים אַמָּה. לֹא יַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם גֹּרֶן קְבוּעָה בְתוֹךְ שֶׁלּוֹ, אֶלָּא אִם כֵּן יֵשׁ לוֹ חֲמִשִּׁים אַמָּה לְכָל רוּחַ. מַרְחִיק מִנְּטִיעוֹתָיו שֶׁלַּחֲבֵרוֹ וּמִנִּירוֹ, כְּדֵי שֶׁלֹּא יַזִּיק.

^{b. Baba Batra 2:8} They remove the fixed threshing floor fifty cubits from the town. A person may not make a fixed threshing floor in his own property unless he has fifty cubits in every direction. And he removes it from his fellow’s plantings and his plowed land, so that he not do damage.^[3]

It is thus strange that Goren-haʿatad is specified as being “beyond the Jordan” as opposed to on the outskirts of a specific town. This has led most scholars to assume that it is a toponym. Indeed, place names beginning with goren are cited in the topographical list of places conquered by Shoshenq I (c. 943–922 B.C.E.), biblical Shishak, inscribed on the wall of Amun’s Temple at Karnak—grn ʾdm (גרן אדם) and ʿen grn (עין גרן).^[4]

Going to Hebron Through Transjordan?

Even if we accept that Goren-haʿatad is the name of a town located “beyond the Jordan,” why would the burial go from Egypt through the Transjordan in order to get to Hebron in Canaan? Hartwig Naphtali Hirz Wessely (1725–1805) already noted this problem in his אמרי שפר (Imrei Shefer) commentary on Genesis:

ואין טעם לומר ״אשר בעבר הירדן״ הנאמר פה הוא עבר הירדן מזרחה, כי איך הלכו מרחק רב כזה דרך ארץ אדום ומואב עד בואם בעבר הירדן? והיו עוברים גם את הירדן ללכת [לחברון]^[5] שהיא מערבית דרומית בארץ כנען ולא הלכו כדרך כל הנוסעים ממצרים לכנען דרך ארץ פלשתים, ״כי קרוב הוא״.

There is no sense if one understands “that is beyond the Jordan” stated here as on the eastern bank, for how could they have walked such an enormous distance, through the lands of Edom and Moab, until arriving in the Transjordan?! And then they would cross the Jordan to go [to Hebron], which is to the southwest, in the land of Canaan, instead of going the way all travelers from Egypt would go to Canaan, the Way of the Land of the Philistines, (Exod 13:17) “for it is near”?!^[6]

Wessely refers here to the coastal road the Torah calls “the Way of the Philistines” since it went up the coast of the Mediterranean toward Gaza where the Philistines dwelt; the Egyptians called this road “The Way of Horus (W3t-Hr)”. This would have been the direct route from Egypt to Canaan.

A circuitous route might have been necessary were the Canaanites hostile and their well-fortified southern border closed to intruders, as the Israelite scouts report at the time of the exodus (Num 13:28–29).^[7] Indeed, the Israelites are attacked when travelling near the Negev in the wilderness period:

^{במדבר כא:א} וַיִּשְׁמַע הַכְּנַעֲנִי מֶלֶךְ עֲרָד יֹשֵׁב הַנֶּגֶב כִּי בָּא יִשְׂרָאֵל דֶּרֶךְ הָאֲתָרִים וַיִּלָּחֶם בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל וַיִּשְׁבְּ מִמֶּנּוּ שֶׁבִי.

^{Num 21:1} When the Canaanite, king of Arad, who dwelt in the Negev, learned that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he engaged Israel in battle and took some of them captive.

The Joseph narrative, however, envisions an earlier period in which Egypt reigns supreme over Canaan. Furthermore, Joseph the vice-regent is leading a funeral party of Egyptian dignitaries and courtiers, accompanied by a heavy military escort, so the funeral cortege would certainly just march up the Way of Horus.^[8] Thus, it is somewhere along this route and its branches we should be looking for Goren-haʿatad. A clue comes from the next verse.

Abel Mizrayim: A Folk Etymology

According to the biblical account, the Canaanite locals take note of the heavy mourning, and the site is named after this event:

^{בראשית נ:יא} וַיַּ֡רְא יוֹשֵׁב֩ הָאָ֨רֶץ הַֽכְּנַעֲנִ֜י אֶת־הָאֵ֗בֶל בְּגֹ֙רֶן֙ הָֽאָטָ֔ד וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ אֵֽבֶל־כָּבֵ֥ד זֶ֖ה לְמִצְרָ֑יִם עַל־כֵּ֞ן קָרָ֤א שְׁמָהּ֙ אָבֵ֣ל מִצְרַ֔יִם אֲשֶׁ֖ר בְּעֵ֥בֶר הַיַּרְדֵּֽן:

^{Gen 50:11} And when inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at Goren-haʿatad, they said, “This is a solemn mourning on the part of the Egyptians.” That is why it was named Abel-Mitzrayim, which is beyond the Jordan.

The story here makes use of a word-play. In toponyms, the word ʾabel (אָבֵל) means “brook” or “watercourse,” and appears in place names such as אָבֵל מְחוֹלָה (Abel-Meholah)^[9] and אָבֵל בֵּית מַעֲכָה (Abel-Beth-Maachah),^[10] and twice in the second half of the Shoshenq stele (nos. 72, 122), probably referring to the major wadis of the northern Negeb.

The term is a less common cognate of נחל (naḥal). Its use here left room for the folk etymology, based on the homograph abel (אָבֵל), “mourning,”^[11] allowing the author to interpret Abel-Mitzrayim as having derived its name from “the Mourning of Egypt.”

A similar word play is found in the Book of I Hanoch 13:9 regarding the toponym Abilene, a place located in the Beqa Valley between the mountain ranges of Lebanon and Snir:

^{חנוך א יג:ט} וכאשר הקיצותי באתי אליהם (בני מרום) והם היו יושבים כלם נאספים יחד אבלים באבלים בין לבנון שניר ופניהם חפו.^[12]

^{1 Enoch 13:9} And I woke up and went to them, and they were all sitting gathered together as they mourned (ʾabelim) in Ubelseyael (=Abelim), which is between Lebanon and Senir, with their faces covered.^[13]

The same Abelim may be mentioned in the Ugaritic Tale of Aqhat describing how the goddess Anat and her aid Yatpan murdered the young prince Aqhat at a place called “the town of Abiluma,” qrt ablm (CAT 1.18); Hebrew, Qiryat Abelim.^[14] After cursing that place where his son was murdered, Danel returns to his palace where he joins weeping women who will cry for the boy for the next seven years. It is more than likely that there is an underlying association between this mourning period and the juxtaposed toponym.

Where Is the Brook of Egypt?

Abel-Mitzrayim is a biform of Naḥal-Mitzrayim (compare Nahal/Abel Shittim (Num. 33:49; Joel 4:18). It is the boundary line between Canaan and Egypt, mentioned several times in the Bible:^[15]

^{מלכים א ח:סה} וַיַּעַשׂ שְׁלֹמֹה בָעֵת הַהִיא אֶת הֶחָג וְכָל יִשְׂרָאֵל עִמּוֹ קָהָל גָּדוֹל מִלְּבוֹא חֲמָת עַד נַחַל מִצְרַיִם...

^{1 Kgs 8:65} So Solomon and all Israel with him—a great assemblage, [coming] from Lebo-Hamat to the Brook of Egypt—observed the feast…

The location of the Brook of Egypt is a question that continues to divide historical geographers,^[16] who have suggested multiple options:

• Majority—Wadi el-Arish, first documented in the Hellenistic period (cf. LXX Isa. 27.12; see also Rabbi Saadya Gaon on Num. 34.51);
• Maximalist—the Pelusaic arm of the Nile;
• Minimalist—Wadi Gaza, i.e. Nahal Besor.

Scholars attempt to determine a singular location for this hydronym based on Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, and biblical sources spread over a 1500-year period. Instead, I suggest that locating “the Brook of Egypt”, designating a watercourse marking the Egyptian border, changed over time according to the evolving political, cultural and demographic conditions in the area.

In our case, we need to understand the perspective of the book of Genesis: In the Table of Nations (Gen. 10:19)^[17]—anticipating our passage^[18]—the southern border of Canaan is clearly delineated as extending from Gerar (Tell Abu Hureira) as far as Gaza in the west and to the five cities of the plain in the east.

^{בראשית י:יט} וַיְהִי גְּבוּל הַכְּנַעֲנִי מִצִּידֹן בֹּאֲכָה גְרָרָה עַד עַזָּה בֹּאֲכָה סְדֹמָה וַעֲמֹרָה וְאַדְמָה וּצְבֹיִם עַד לָשַׁע.

^{Gen 10:19} The Canaanite territory extends from Sidon as far as Gerar, near Gaza, and as far as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboyim, near Lasha.^[19]

Furthermore, the patriarchal narratives, describing Abraham and Isaac living in Gerar, reflect the southern limits of Canaanite settlement.^[20] Thus, according to Genesis, the southwestern border of Canaan lies in the vicinity of the confluences of Nahal Besor (Wadi Gaza) and its tributaries. Indeed, this is the logical implication of our story. The solemn lamentation for Jacob was observed at Goren-haʿatad, a small station on the southern bank of the Brook of Egypt the contemporary Egyptian-Canaanite border, localized in relation to the village of Jordan/Yardan.^[21]

After stopping at the border to pay their last respects to the deceased, the Egyptian dignitaries part ways from the family mourners to return home (Gen 50:13). Goren-haʿatad, therefore, is close enough for the Canaanites to take note of the ceremony, but not in Canaan. If this is correct, though, how do we explain its location אֲשֶׁר בְּעֵבֶר הַיַּרְדֵּן “beyond the Jordan”?^[22]

Yardan on the Southern Border of Canaan

I suggest that, in this context, the toponym Yardan does not have its usual meaning of “the Jordan River,” but should be identified with the town y-w-r-w-d-n, no. 150 in Shishak’s victory stele. Assuming close proximity of the sites mentioned in lines 10 and 11, this Yrdn (1. 10) must have been in the general vicinity of Raphiah (1. 11.2), Luban (11.3) and other cities in the northwestern Negeb connected by the same road system. This is likely the toponym that Josephus mentions as a point marking the southwestern comer of Judea: “a village (κωμη) on the Arabian frontier which the local Jews call Yardan (‘’Ιαρδάν”^[23], War 3:3.5 [§51]).^[24]

Since Yardan does not appear in the city lists of southern Judah (Josh 15) and Simeon (Josh 19:1–9), it follows that it was not located at one of the prominent tells but was rather, as Josephus states, a village. Its occasional appearance in sources, despite it being a relatively small settlement, is likely due to its noteworthy placement as a demarcation of the extreme point on the southern border of Canaan and, later, Judea.

A 7th c. Battle Destroys the Village of Yardan

The place name is also likely preserved in the sixth century C.E. name Orda/Ardōn, the capital of the bishopric of Gerar.^[25] Albrecht Alt and Yohanan Aharoni^[26] place Orda at Khirbet ‘Irq (108/086),^[27] at the junction of Nahal Gerar and Nahal Pattish (Photis), six km southwest of Tell Gerar (112/087).^[28]

A still later reference to Yardan, whose importance for the history of this area has not been appreciated, is found in a Syriac chronicle describing the Muslim victory over the Christians on February 4, 634 C.E. The battle took place some 18 km (12 Roman miles) east of Gaza. The fleeing Christians left their wounded leader (Lat. patricius) in Yardan, where he was killed together with some 4000 Christians, Jewish, and Samaritan villagers by the invading Arabs, who then went on to destroy the local settlements:

בשנת תשעמאא וארבעין וחמש הנדקטיונא דאברמא בשבט בארבעא בה, בערובתא בתשע שעין הוא קרבא דרהומיא ורטייא דמחמט בפלסטינא מן מדנהא לגזא תרעסר מילא. וערקון רהומיא ושבקוהי לפטריקיס בירדן וקטלוהי טייא. ואתקטלו תמן איך ארבעא אלפין קורייא מסכנא מנה דפלסטינא כרסטינא ויהודיא ושמריא. וחרבון טייא לכלה אתרא...

In the year 945, in the seventh Index on the fourth day of Shevat on Friday in the ninth hour, there was a battle between the Romans (i.e. Byzantines) and the Arabs of Mohammad in Palestine twelve (Roman) miles east of Gaza. And the Romans fled and left a patrician in Yardan and the Arabs killed him. And 4000 impoverished villagers of Palestine were killed there: Christians, Jews and Samaritans; and the Arabs destroyed the whole area.

This text is referring to a place by the name of Yrdn/Jordan, located not far from a battlefield some 18 miles east of Gaza; as a result of this battle, the ancient village was obliterated. The description emphasizes that Yardan was a border town in the northwestern corner of the Negev, and the almost precise mileage brings us close to Khirbet ‘Irq, the suggested site of Yardan.

The Yardan Pass

The term ʿeber is commonly used in relation to a river to refer to a “river side, bank.”^[29] And yet, no location in the northern Negev can reasonably be referred to as “Over the Jordan” or Cis-Jordan.^[30] It is quite likely, therefore, that this was an intended play on words with the common term of ‘Eber hayarden, which in the Bible refers to the length of the River from the Kinneret to the Dead Sea.^[31]

In the Joseph story (Gen 37–50), we find several other cases of paronomasia, one or two based on geographical terms:

1. Joseph presents his two sons Menashe and Ephraim to his father on his deathbed (Gen 48 1–14). Jacob playing on the name Ephraim says to Joseph הִנְנִי מַפְרְךָ I will make you fertile and numerous (maphrekha). And at this time, he places his right hand on Ephraim’s head and his left hand on Menashe’s head implying the geographic location of the future tribal territories Ephraim to the south (right) of Menash^[32]
2. Jacob says to Joseph: וַאֲנִי נָתַתִּי לְךָ שְׁכֶם אַחַד עַל אַחֶיךָ “I have given you one portion (shechem) more than your brothers” (Gen 48:22). The choice of the term shechem to denote a topographic feature over the more common כתף “kateph” (Josh. 18 12, 13, 16, 18) is intentionally used to echo the city of Shechem, the major city in the territories of the tribes of Joseph (Josh 21:21; Numbers 26:31).

These passages strengthen the case for the use of the term “Eber hayarden” as another instance of wordplay indicating the site opposite the village of Yarden.

Berend Gemser (1890–1962), Dutch professor of Old Testament, has shown the basic meaning of ʿeber in these cases is “to cross or pass over,” which suggests that ʿeber hayarden might be better translated “The Yardan Pass/Crossing,” in this case referring to a spot by the Brook of Egypt.^[33] It would be here that the funeral procession enters Canaan.

This reconstruction suggests the following route for the funeral cortege: Veering off the Coastal Road near Raphiah, the party would have proceeded to the Egyptian fortress at Tell Jemmeh and then continued on and encamped on the southern bank of Nahal Besor. Somewhere along this border, a spectator viewing the procession from a vantage point within Canaan would have seen a seven-day mourning period being observed at a place called Goren-haʿatad in Egyptian territory, on the southern bank of the wadi, i.e. Nahal/Abel Mizraim.

This custom of identifying sites having similar names or unknown location by a larger area is well known.^[34] In this case, however, locating the unknown threshing floor of Goren-haʿatad in the expanse of ʿEber hayarden is surprising and not helpful. It would be better to locate the site of the ceremony in proximity to the Canaanite village of Yardan on the northern bank of Nahal Mizraim as suggested.