The Hebrew verb ירד (yarad, pronounced ya-RAHD) means "to descend, go down." It is used as in Exodus 19:14: "So Moses went down (וירד) from the mountain to the people." Interestingly, it is also the verbal root of the name of the Jordan River, called the Yarden (ירדן) in Hebrew. Because the Jordan River connects the highest mountain in the region (Mt. Hermon in the Golan Heights at the intersection of Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan) with the lowest point on the face of the earth (the Dead Sea), the river is appropriately named "The Descender" or "The Go-Downer," or in Hebrew, the Yarden or Jordan River, from the verb ירד (yarad).