To descend (literally, to go downwards ; or conventionally to a lower region, as the shore, a boundary, the enemy, etc.; or figuratively, to fall ); causatively, to bring down (in all the above applications)
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H3381 is the Hebrew verb for going down, descending, or causing something to come down. Sometimes the movement is ordinary geography: Joseph’s brothers go down to Egypt for grain in Genesis 42:3, and Moses comes down from Sinai to the people in Exodus 19:14.
Reader summary
Full entry for יָרַד (H3381) · Open the biblical lexicon
H3381 is the Hebrew verb for going down, descending, or causing something to come down. Sometimes the movement is ordinary geography: Joseph’s brothers go down to Egypt for grain in Genesis 42:3, and Moses comes down from Sinai to the people in Exodus 19:14.
The BSB source-word alignment has 380 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include went down (28), came down (20), go down (17), down (13), Come down (11).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 11:5. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Samuel (42), Genesis (39), Judges (32), Ezekiel (29).
H3381 is the Hebrew verb for going down, descending, or causing something to come down. Sometimes the movement is ordinary geography: Joseph’s brothers go down to Egypt for grain in Genesis 42:3, and Moses comes down from Sinai to the people in Exodus 19:14. Other passages give descent narrative or theological weight. Jonah goes down to Joppa while fleeing the Lord, and the repeated downward movement in the chapter accompanies his attempted escape.
Micah 1:3 announces that the Lord will come down and tread the high places of the earth, using spatial language for divine intervention in judgment. Psalm 30:3 speaks of being spared from descending into the Pit, where downward movement approaches the realm of death. The verb itself does not make every descent sinful, humiliating, or divine. A traveler may simply move to a lower location; a causative form may bring a person or power down.
Teachers should let geography remain geography when the passage does, while noticing when a book deliberately uses descent to trace danger, judgment, mortality, rescue, or God’s decisive action.
H3381 carries people down mountains, toward Egypt, into ships, through political reversals, and toward the imagery of death. Its canonical range makes descent concrete first, then capable of serving narratives of flight, judgment, humbling, and rescue.
So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.
Joseph’s brothers descend to Egypt because famine has made grain necessary, so ordinary travel becomes part of providential family history without the verb itself explaining that providence.
When Moses came down from the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes.
Moses comes down from the mountain to consecrate the people, linking vertical movement to his mediating task while the Lord’s command and covenant scene supply the theological meaning.
Jonah, however, got up to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard to sail for Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
Jonah goes down to Joppa and boards a ship while fleeing the Lord, beginning a repeated downward narrative movement that exposes the futility and danger of his refusal.
For behold, the Lord comes forth from His dwelling place; He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.
Micah portrays the Lord coming down from His dwelling to tread the earth’s high places, using descent imagery for sovereign intervention and covenant judgment rather than physical limitation.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Descent from high to low, physically or morally; often implies loss of status, power, or divine favor.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 381 lexical occurrence verses.
יָרַד is a primitive root - no further derivation.
The verb underscores that God is not distant or passive. He personally intervenes in judgment and later in salvation, preparing categories for understanding the incarnation and the cross.Micah 1:1-5
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H3381 reminds readers that biblical theology often works through embodied movement without turning every movement into a code. Joseph’s brothers descend because hunger drives them toward Egypt, and their journey becomes one step in a providential family drama they do not yet understand. Moses descends from Sinai to prepare the people, so movement from mountain to camp serves obedient mediation.
Jonah’s downward route is more deliberately shaped: he goes down to Joppa, enters the ship, and is later hurled toward the deep while trying to flee the presence of the Lord. Micah reverses human expectations by depicting the Lord coming down to act against proud high places. The same verb can also describe people or powers being brought low and a life nearing the Pit.
These settings do not support a simple equation of down with evil and up with good. God may descend in judgment, a servant may descend in obedience, and a traveler may descend because roads and regions require it. Yet authors can make direction carry narrative force. Wise teaching therefore honors geography, grammar, and literary pattern together. H3381 invites disciples to ask where a path leads, whether movement answers God’s word or evades it, and how the Lord meets people in low places without being confined by spatial imagination.
Jonah.1.3
H3381 is a Hebrew motion verb whose stem and construction distinguish going down from causing someone or something to descend. Destinations such as Egypt, a mountain base, a ship, a valley, or Sheol establish the concrete sense before literary patterns add significance.
The New Testament also narrates descending, coming down, being lowered, and bringing up, but those passages use Greek motion vocabulary and their own christological or narrative settings. A responsible canonical connection observes the shared embodied pattern without claiming a direct lexical identity.