Sculptured reliefs and painted murals in ancient Egyptian tombs reveal that the Egyptians were very demonstrative and vehement in their public lamentations for the dead. They rent their garments, beat their breasts, threw dust and mud on their heads, and chanted funeral hymns to the music of a tambourine from which the tinkling plates had been removed.

The funeral procession did not take the shortest route, by Gaza, through the country of the Philistines, nor through Beersheba, but around the Dead Sea. The reasons for this long detour are unknown, but may have been political. Very little is known of the general relations between Egypt and Palestine during the period of the Hyksos, and a state of insecurity in southern Palestine may have been responsible for the extraordinary route Joseph took to reach Hebron.

The threshing floor was a large open area for the trampling out of grain by oxen, and was most convenient for the accommodation of a large body of people such as accompanied Joseph. Atad was either the name of the owner or, since ’aṭad is the Hebrew name for buckthorn, it may have indicated that buckthorn grew abundantly.