Hebrew word · H4174

מוֹרָד

morad

descent

'Morad' means descent or slope (from 'yarad', to go down). Beth-horon, 'house of Horon', was named after a Canaanite god. It was a pair of towns, Upper and Lower Beth-horon, on a ridge road linking the Benjamin plateau to the Aijalon valley.

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) descent, slope, steep place, hanging work, bevelled work

1a) descent

1b) hanging work

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Joshua 10:11

Range of meaning

'Morad' means descent or slope (from 'yarad', to go down). Beth-horon, 'house of Horon', was named after a Canaanite god. It was a pair of towns, Upper and Lower Beth-horon, on a ridge road linking the Benjamin plateau to the Aijalon valley.

Against the English

KJV 'the going down to Beth-horon' and BSB 'the descent from Beth-horon' each choose a direction. The Hebrew just says 'the descent of Beth-horon', meaning the slope named after the towns. That slope runs down from Upper to Lower Beth-horon.

Used elsewhere in the period

Verse 10 calls the same road the 'ascent' of Beth-horon, because the army first climbed out of the Gibeon area. The pass was a famous place for routs. Judas Maccabeus defeated the Seleucid general Seron there (1 Macc 3:13–24). The Roman governor Cestius Gallus lost much of his army on the same descent in AD 66 (Josephus, Jewish War 2.546–555).

Where it appears

Joshua · 2

  1. Joshua 7:5 בַּמּוֹרָ֑ד at the descent

    And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six of them, chasing them from the gate as far as the quarries and striking them down on the slopes. So the hearts of the people melted and became like water.

  2. Joshua 10:11 בְּמוֹרַ֤ד [were] at [the] descent of

    As they fled before Israel along the descent from Beth-horon to Azekah, the LORD cast down on them large hailstones from the sky, and more of them were killed by the hailstones than by the swords of the Israelites.

    Here: The downhill stretch of the road. Verse 10 calls the same road the 'ascent' (ma'aleh) of Beth-horon. The fleeing army climbed up out of the Gibeon plateau and is now running down the steep western slope toward the lowlands.

1 Kings · 1

  1. 1 Kings 7:29 מוֹרָֽד׃ hanging

    and on the panels between the uprights were lions, oxen, and cherubim. On the uprights was a pedestal above, and below the lions and oxen were wreaths of beveled work.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 48:5 בְּמוֹרַ֣ד on [the] descent of

    For on the ascent to Luhith they weep bitterly as they go, and on the descent to Horonaim cries of distress resound over the destruction:

Micah · 1

  1. Micah 1:4 בְּמוֹרָֽד׃ on a slope

    The mountains will melt beneath Him, and the valleys will split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.

    Here: A slope or descent, the downhill grade of a road or hillside (Josh 7:5; Jer 48:5). Water on a steep slope picks up speed and gouges the ground. That is the picture of valleys being torn open.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.