And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very strong lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
Read Chapter 50
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Atad, which was so called, from being encompassed with thorns. (Calmet)
Beyond; with relation to Moses, (Haydock) or on the west side of the Jordan. (Calmet)
For your part, however, dearly beloved, don’t simply pass this by on hearing it; instead, consider the time when it happened and absolve Joseph of all blame. I mean, the gates of the underworld were still not broken or the bonds of death loosed. Nor was death yet called sleep. Hence, because they feared death, they acted this way; today, on the contrary, thanks to the grace of God, since death has been turned into slumber and life’s end into repose and since there is great certitude of resurrection, we rejoice and exult at death like people moving from one life to another. Why do I say from one life to another? From a worse to a better, from a temporary to an eternal, from an earthly to a heavenly.
