Genesis 50:11

Summary

The verse describes the Canaanite inhabitants of the land observing the mourning ceremony at the threshing floor of Atad. Their reaction — declaring it a "heavy mourning" for Egypt — becomes the origin explanation for the place being named Abel-Mizraim, located on the other side of the Jordan.

Key words

• va-yar ("and he saw", H7200G) — qal narrative verb, singular "he," introducing the observing subject before it is even named.
• yoshev ("inhabitant of", H3427) — qal participle, construct form, functioning as "the one dwelling in," linked to ha-aretz ("the land").
• ha-ken'ani ("the Canaanite", H3669A) — gentilic noun in apposition, specifying which inhabitants: those of Canaanite identity.
• avel kaved ("heavy mourning", H0060 + H3515) — noun plus adjective, forming the direct-speech description of what they witnessed.
• shemah ("its name", H8034 + H9024) — construct noun with feminine possessive suffix, referring back to the place (gorem, "threshing floor," is feminine), explaining the naming.

What the text says

The sentence opens with va-yar ("and he saw", H7200G), a narrative qal verb in the third person singular, whose grammatical subject is the collective noun phrase yoshev ha-aretz ha-ken'ani — literally "the inhabitant of the land, the Canaanite." Though yoshev ("inhabitant of", H3427) is singular in form, it functions collectively, referring to the Canaanite population as a group. The object of their seeing is marked by 'et (H0853, untranslated object marker) followed by ha-'evel ("the mourning", H0060), located be-goren ha-'atad ("at the threshing floor of Atad", H1637 + H0329G).

The second narrative verb, va-yomeru ("and they said", H0559), shifts to plural, introducing direct speech: 'evel kaved zeh le-Mitzrayim — "heavy mourning [is] this for Egypt." Here zeh (H2088, demonstrative) points to the mourning just witnessed, and le-Mitzrayim (H4714G) uses the preposition le ("for") to indicate whose mourning it is.

The causal clause 'al-ken ("therefore", H5921A + H3651C) introduces the naming explanation: qara shemah 'Avel Mitzrayim — "someone called its name Abel Mitzrayim." The verb qara ("someone called", H7121H) is qal perfect, third person singular, with an unspecified impersonal subject (commonly rendered as passive in translations). The suffix on shemah ("its name", H9024) is feminine, agreeing with goren ("threshing floor", H1637), a feminine noun — confirming that the place being named is the threshing floor itself. The final relative clause, introduced by 'asher ("which", H0834A), locates this place be-'ever ha-Yarden ("on the other side of the Jordan", H5676H + H3383).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text names the place 'Avel Mitzrayim (H0067 + H0067), a name built on wordplay between 'evel ("mourning", H0060) and 'avel (a homophone meaning "meadow" in some readings, though here rendered as part of the place name "Abel"). The LXX translates this as "Πένθος Αἰγύπτου" (Penthos Aigyptou, "Mourning of Egypt"), rendering the place name descriptively rather than transliterating it. The Vulgate similarly gives "Planctus Ægypti" ("Mourning of Egypt"), following the LXX's descriptive approach rather than preserving the Hebrew proper name as a transliteration. The Spanish RV1909 and BSB instead transliterate the name as "Abelmizraim" / "Abel-mizraim," closer to the Hebrew consonantal form, while the SBLIBRE renders it "Abel Mizraim."