JACOB WAS buried at the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron. So, why did Joseph and his brothers take his body all the way around the other side of the Dead Sea and mourn for seven days at a threshing floor in the ruined city of Sodom?

We discuss the “physicians” of Joseph (ropheim in Hebrew) and the Rephaim of the Transjordan, explain why we believe the threshing floor of Atad was at the site of Sodom, and speculate as to why Joseph and the retinue mourned Jacob for seven days “beyond the Jordan.”