Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ATAD

(Heb. ʾāṭāḏ)

A place “beyond the Jordan” where Jacob’s burial procession stopped for seven days to mourn (Gen. 50:10-11). The phrase gōren hāʾāṭāḏ is usually translated “the threshing floor of (the) Atad,” but it could also be translated “the threshing floor of thorns,” suggesting that Atad may not be a proper name. When local Canaanites saw the mourning (Gen. 50:11), they renamed the place Abel-mizraim (“mourning of the Egyptians”).

The location and identification of Atad is unknown. It should be located in Transjordan, but the 6th-century a.d. Madeba Map provides information that an Alon-atad is located near Beth-agla (modern Deir µajlah; 197136) between Jericho and the Dead Sea, which is the wrong side of the Jordan River. It is uncertain why Joseph’s party would have taken the longer route around the southern end of the Dead Sea.

Bibliography. W. H. Shea, “The Burial of Jacob,” Archaeology and Biblical Research 5 (1992): 33-44.

Zeljko Gregor

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ATAD

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)