This name was given at the floor of Atad, on the occasion of the funeral of Jacob. The margin of the Bible renders it, "the mourning of the Egyptians." Gen 1:11
A´bel-Mizra´im (The mourning of the Egyptians), the name of a threshing-floor, so called on account of the ’great mourning’ made there for Jacob by the funeral party from Egypt (Gen 50:11). Jerome places it between Jericho and the Jordan, where Bethagla afterwards stood.
A’bel-mizra’im. (meadow of Egypt). The name given by the Canaanites to the floor of Atad, at which Joseph, his brothers and the Egyptians made their mourning for Jacob. Gen 50:11. It was beyond (on the east of) Jordan. See Atad. (Schaff and others say it was on the west bank, for the writer was on the east of Jordan. It was near Jericho, or perhaps Hebron).
("the mourning of the Egyptians" or "the funeral from Egypt".) The threshingfloor of Atad; so called by the Canaanites, because it was the chief scene of the funeral laments of Joseph and his Egyptian retinue for Jacob (Gen 50:4-11). E. of Jordan. Moses, taking Canaan as the central standpoint of the whole history, uses the phrase "beyond Jordan" for east of it. The same route by which Joseph was led captive was, in the striking providence of God, that which they took to do honor to his deceased father, being the longer and more public way from Egypt to Canaan. God’s eternal principle is, "them that honor Me I will honor." Jerome, however, places it at Beth-Hogla, now Ain Hajla, on the W. of Jordan, which would make Moses’ standpoint in saying "beyond" the E. of Jordan; but Gen 50:13 plainly shows it was not till after the mourning at Abel-Mizraim that "Jacob’s sons carried him into the land of Canaan." The phrase, "Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh" implies that Pharaoh and his estates in council decreed a state funeral for Jacob, in which the princes, nobles, and chief men of Egypt, with their pomp of chariots and equipages, took part. The funeral celebration lasted for seven days. The usual Egyptian rites on such occasions consisted in banquets and games, as Egyptian monuments show. These having been completed at Atad, Jacob’s sons proceeded alone to the cave of Machpelah, the final burying place of his embalmed body.
(Heb.Abel’ Mitsra’yim,
Abel-Mizraim (â’bel-mĭz-ray’ĭm), meadow of Egypt. Gen 50:10-11. The place where Joseph and his company halted seven days in passing from Egypt to Canaan to bury Jacob. It was "beyond"—that is, west of, the Jordan, as the writer was on the east side. Some think it was near Hebron.
By: John Dyneley Prince, Louis Ginzberg
Occurs only in Genesis (l. 11). It is interpreted by Septuagint, Vulgate, and the Peshito (followed by A. V.) as "Mourning of the Egyptians," or "of Egypt"; and there can be no doubt that it was intended to suggest a connection with Abel. The narrative states that Joseph, attended by a great company (ver. 9), took his father's body out of Egypt, and at the first village across the Canaanitish border held the customary funeral rites, peculiar to Syria even at the present time. In Genesis (l. 10) the locality is called "the threshing-floor of Atad" (= "buckthorn" or "bramble"; compare Assyrian etidu = buckthorn, rhamnus, Linn.), and its situation is given as being "beyond Jordan." This expression, "beyond Jordan," repeated in verse 11, seems very strange, as it implies that the mourning party went around the north end of the Dead Sea. On this account, Cheyne (in "Ency. Bibl." i. 7, 8) suggests, with some reason, that the original reading was Siḥor, a branch of the Nile, which is mentioned (Josh. xiii. 3) as marking the Egyptian-Canaanitish frontier. This would place Abel-mizraim in Canaan just over the Egyptian border, where one would naturally expect to find it.
From the analogy of such names as Abel-meholah, Abel-shittim, etc., it seems clear that Abel here has no connection with 
, "to mourn," but simply means "meadow of Egypt" (compare Winckler in "Altorientalische Forschungen" p. 34, who thinks that Mizraim here is a later change from an original "Muṣri," in northern Arabia).
J. D. P.—In Rabbinical Literature:
The rabbis say that both names, signifying respectively "The Mourning of Egypt" and "The Thorn Threshing-floor," are derived from the mourning over Jacob. According to the rabbinical account the sons of Jacob had scarcely crossed the frontier at Abel-mizraim with the body of their father, when their cousins, the sons of Ishmael, Esau, and Keturah, appeared in large numbers against them, believing that the Egyptians, of whom there were many in the procession, intended to invade Palestine. But when they perceived Jacob's bier, and Joseph's crown carried behind it in state, the thirty-six princes among them sent their crowns also, to be carried in the funeral procession. Hence the name "Thorn Threshing-floor"; for Abel-mizraim was so encircled by a row of crowns as to remind one of a threshing-floor, which is usually surrounded by a hedge of thorns (Soṭah, 13a; Tan., Wa-yeḥi, 18, ed. Buber, i. 222, and the parallels there cited).
ABEL-MIZRAIM (‘meadow of the Egyptians’).—The scene of the mourning for Jacob (Gen 50:11). The only clue to its situation is its being ‘beyond Jordan.’
It is remarkable that the funeral should have taken this circuitous route, instead of going directly from Egypt to Hebron. Possibly a reason may be found as we obtain additional details in Egyptian history. The explanations which consist in changing the text, or in substituting the North Arabian Mutsri for Mitsrayim, are unsatisfactory.