Inhabitants of the land: these are identified in this verse as the Canaanites. We may therefore translate “When the people of Canaan saw….”

Saw the mourning on …: that is, “saw how the people were mourning at the threshing floor of Atad….”

They said may need to be expressed as “said to each other” or “said to themselves.”

This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: this comment made by the Canaanites is said to provide an explanation for the name of the place in the next sentence. The word rendered mourning by Revised Standard Version is ʾebel. The expression is literally “a heavy mourning,” which means “a very sad mourning.” Note how Good News Translation expresses the emphatic character of this remark.

Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim: see footnotes of Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. As in most of the explanations of the origins of names in Genesis, it is the similarity of sound between two words that is said to be the explanation of the name. Translators may follow the models of Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

It is beyond the Jordan: Good News Translation does not repeat this statement, which was made in verse 10.

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 .