A threshing floor is a flat open area on the ground where grain was placed to dry after harvesting it, and where it was later beaten or crushed to separate the grain from the husks. The location of Atad, which means “brambles,” is not known. Some translators do not translate as threshing floor of Atad but keep the Hebrew form in full as the name of the place: “Goren-ha-Atad.” As this is not a known place, there is no advantage in transliterating it. Some translations restructure the first part of the verse to separate the name of the place from the additional information about it: “They came to the place Atad on the east side of the Jordan River … This was a place where they used to separate the wheat seeds from the chaff and rubbish.”
Beyond the Jordan: this may mean east of the Jordan river, but since the place is not known, we cannot know how far east. If the destination of the funeral procession was the cave of Machpelah near Hebron (23.19), we must assume they did not follow the caravan route along the sea coast to Beersheba but rather traveled across Sinai to the area east of the Jordan (von Rad).
They lamented there with a very great … lamentation: this is literally “They mourned there a very great and heavy mourning,” which emphasizes the extent of the mourning rituals. Note Good News Translation “loudly for a long time.” Bible en français courant says “There they celebrated a solemn funeral ceremony that was very impressive.” The details of such mourning rituals are not well known, but they probably included loud wailing, chanting dirges, and people beating their bodies. Translators may be able to use the terms that express mourning in their own cultures.
The ceremony that Joseph organized lasted for seven days, which is the period of mourning in Israel (1 Sam 31.13). In the words of one translation, “There Joseph had that ceremony of mourning the dead one, for one week.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .