Reference: Desert
American
The Scriptures, by "desert," generally mean an uncultivated place, a wilderness, or grazing tract. Some deserts were entirely fry and barren; others were beautiful, and had good pastures. David speaks of the beauty of the desert, Ps 65:12-13. Scripture names several deserts in the Holy Land. Other deserts particularly mentioned, are "that great and terrible wilderness" in Arabia Petraea, south of Canaan, Nu 21:20; also the region between Canaan and the Euphrates, Ex 23:31; De 11:24. The pastures of this wilderness are clothed in winter and spring with rich and tender herbage; but the heat of summer soon burns this up, and the Arabs are driven to seek pasturage elsewhere.
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I will let the limits of your land be from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the waste land to the river Euphrates: for I will give the people of those lands into your power; and you will send them out before you.
And from Bamoth to the valley in the open country of Moab, and to the top of Pisgah looking over Jeshimon.
Every place where you put your foot will be yours: from the waste land and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates as far as the Great Sea, will be the limits of your land.
Falling on the grass of the waste land: and the little hills are glad on every side. The grass-land is thick with flocks; the valleys are full of grain; they give glad cries and songs of joy.
Easton
(1.) Heb. midbar, "pasture-ground;" an open tract for pasturage; a common (Joe 2:22). The "backside of the desert" (Ex 3:1) is the west of the desert, the region behind a man, as the east is the region in front. The same Hebrew word is rendered "wildernes," and is used of the country lying between Egypt and Palestine (21/14/type/bbe'>Ge 21:14,21; Ex 4:27; 19:2; Jos 1:4), the wilderness of the wanderings. It was a grazing tract, where the flocks and herds of the Israelites found pasturage during the whole of their journey to the Promised Land.
The same Hebrew word is used also to denote the wilderness of Arabia, which in winter and early spring supplies good pasturage to the flocks of the nomad tribes than roam over it (1Ki 9:18).
The wilderness of Judah is the mountainous region along the western shore of the Dead Sea, where David fed his father's flocks (1Sa 17:28; 26:2). Thus in both of these instances the word denotes a country without settled inhabitants and without streams of water, but having good pasturage for cattle; a country of wandering tribes, as distinguished from that of a settled people (Isa 35:1; 50:2; Jer 4:11). Such, also, is the meaning of the word "wilderness" in Mt 3:3; 15:33; Lu 15:4.
(2.) The translation of the Hebrew Aribah', "an arid tract" (Isa 35:1,6; 40:3; 41:19; 51:3, etc.). The name Arabah is specially applied to the deep valley of the Jordan (the Ghor of the Arabs), which extends from the lake of Tiberias to the Elanitic gulf. While midbar denotes properly a pastoral region, arabah denotes a wilderness. It is also translated "plains;" as "the plains of Jericho" (Jos 5:10; 2Ki 25:5), "the plains of Moab" (Nu 22:1; De 34:1,8), "the plains of the wilderness" (2Sa 17:16).
(3.) In the Revised Version of Nu 21:20 the Hebrew word jeshimon is properly rendered "desert," meaning the waste tracts on both shores of the Dead Sea. This word is also rendered "desert" in Ps 78:40; 106:14; Isa 43:19-20. It denotes a greater extent of uncultivated country than the other words so rendered. It is especially applied to the desert of the peninsula of Arabia (Nu 21:20; 23:28), the most terrible of all the deserts with which the Israelites were acquainted. It is called "the desert" in Ex 23:31; De 11:24. (See Jeshimon.)
(4.) A dry place; hence a desolation (Ps 9:6), desolate (Le 26:34); the rendering of the Hebrew word horbah'. It is rendered "desert" only in Ps 102:6; Isa 48:21; Eze 13:4, where it means the wilderness of Sinai.
(5.) This word is the symbol of the Jewish church when they had forsaken God (Isa 40:3). Nations destitute of the knowledge of God are called a "wilderness" (Isa 32:15, midbar). It is a symbol of temptation, solitude, and persecution (Isa 27:10, midbar; Isa 33:9, arabah).
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And early in the morning Abraham got up, and gave Hagar some bread and a water-skin, and put the boy on her back, and sent her away: and she went, wandering in the waste land of Beer-sheba.
And while he was in the waste land of Paran, his mother got him a wife from the land of Egypt.
Now Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he took the flock to the back of the waste land and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the waste land and you will see Moses. So he went and came across Moses at the mountain of God, and gave him a kiss.
And when they had gone away from Rephidim and had come into the waste land of Sinai, they put up their tents in the waste land before the mountain: there Israel put up its tents.
I will let the limits of your land be from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the waste land to the river Euphrates: for I will give the people of those lands into your power; and you will send them out before you.
Then will the land take pleasure in its Sabbaths while it is waste and you are living in the land of your haters; then will the land have rest.
And from Bamoth to the valley in the open country of Moab, and to the top of Pisgah looking over Jeshimon.
And from Bamoth to the valley in the open country of Moab, and to the top of Pisgah looking over Jeshimon.
Then the children of Israel, journeying on, put up their tents in the lowlands of Moab, on the other side of Jordan at Jericho.
Every place where you put your foot will be yours: from the waste land and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates as far as the Great Sea, will be the limits of your land.
And Moses went up from the table-lands of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah which is facing Jericho. And the Lord let him see all the land, the land of Gilead as far as Dan;
For thirty days the children of Israel were weeping for Moses in the table-lands of Moab, till the days of weeping and sorrow for Moses were ended.
From the waste land and this mountain Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, and all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea, in the west, will be your country.
So the children of Israel put up their tents in Gilgal; and they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, in the lowlands of Jericho.
And Eliab, his oldest brother, hearing what David said to the men, was moved to wrath against David, and said, Why have you come here? Into whose care have you given that little flock of sheep in the waste land? I have knowledge of your pride and the evil of your heart, you have come down to see the fight.
Then Saul went down to the waste land of Ziph, taking with him three thousand of the best men of Israel, to make search for David in the waste land of Ziph.
So now send the news quickly to David, and say, Do not take your night's rest by the way across the river to the waste land, but be certain to go over; or the king and all the people with him will come to destruction.
You have given their towns to destruction; the memory of them has gone; they have become waste for ever.
How frequently did they go against him in the waste land, and give him cause for grief in the dry places!
They gave way to their evil desires in the waste land, and put God to the test in the dry places.
For the strong town is without men, an unpeopled living-place; and she has become a waste land: there the young ox will take his rest, and its branches will be food for him.
Till the spirit comes on us from on high, and the waste land becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field is changed into a wood.
The earth is sorrowing and wasting away; Lebanon is put to shame and has become waste; Sharon is like the Arabah; and in Bashan and Carmel the leaves are falling.
The waste land and the dry places will be glad; the lowland will have joy and be full of flowers.
The waste land and the dry places will be glad; the lowland will have joy and be full of flowers.
Then will the feeble-footed be jumping like a roe, and the voice which was stopped will be loud in song: for in the waste land streams will be bursting out, and waters in the dry places.
A voice of one crying, Make ready in the waste land the way of the Lord, make level in the lowland a highway for our God.
A voice of one crying, Make ready in the waste land the way of the Lord, make level in the lowland a highway for our God.
I will put in the waste land the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive-tree; and in the lowland will be planted the fir-tree, the plane, and the cypress together:
See, I am doing a new thing; now it is starting; will you not take note of it? I will even make a way in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country. The beasts of the field will give me honour, the jackals and the ostriches: because I send out waters in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country, to give drink to the people whom I have taken for myself:
They had no need of water when he was guiding them through the waste lands: he made water come out of the rock for them: the rock was parted and the waters came flowing out.
Why, then, when I came, was there no man? and no one to give answer to my voice? has my hand become feeble, so that it is unable to take up your cause? or have I no power to make you free? See, at my word the sea becomes dry, I make the rivers a waste land: their fish are dead for need of water, and make an evil smell.
For the Lord has given comfort to Zion: he has made glad all her broken walls; making her waste places like Eden, and changing her dry land into the garden of the Lord; joy and delight will be there, praise and the sound of melody.
At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A burning wind from the open hilltops in the waste land is blowing on the daughter of my people, not for separating or cleaning the grain;
O Israel, your prophets have been like jackals in the waste places.
Have no fear, you beasts of the field, for the grass-lands of the waste are becoming green, for the trees are producing fruit, the fig-tree and the vine give out their strength.
For this is he of whom Isaiah the prophet said, The voice of one crying in the waste land, Make ready the way of the Lord, make his roads straight.
And the disciples say to him, How may we get enough bread in a waste place, to give food to such a number of people?
What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if one of them gets loose and goes away, will not let the ninety-nine be in the waste land by themselves, and go after the wandering one, till he sees where it is?
Fausets
Not meaning a barren, burning, sandy waste, in the case of Sinai and Palestine. Sand is the exception, not the rule, in the peninsula of Sinai. Even still it is diversified by oases and verdant valleys with wells. Much more formerly, for traces exist in many parts of Egyptian miners' smelting furnaces. But forest after forest being consumed by them for fuel, the rain decreased, and the fertility of the land has sunk down to what it now is. Arabah (now the Ghor) is the designation of the sunken valley N. and S. of the Dead Sea, especially the N., the deepest and hottest depression on the earth. Though in its present neglected state it is desolate, it formerly exhibited tropical luxuriance of vegetation, because the water resources of the country were duly used.
Jericho, "the city of palm trees," at the lower end, and Bethshean at the upper, were especially so noted. Though there are no palms growing there now, yet black trunks of palm are still found drifted on to the shores of the Dead Sea (Eze 47:8). In the prophets and poetical books arabah is used generally for a waste (Isa 35:1). It is not so used in the histories, but specifically for the Jordan valley. (See ARABAH.) The wilderness of Israel's 40 years wanderings (Paran, now the Tih) afforded ample sustenance then for their numerous cattle; so that the skeptic's objection to the history on this ground is futile.
Midbar, the regular term for this "desert" or "wilderness" (Ex 3:1; 5:3; 19:2), means a pasture ground (from daabar, "to drive flocks") (Ex 10:26; 12:38; Nu 11:22; 32:1). It is "desert" only in comparison with the rich agriculture of Egypt and Palestine. The midbars of Ziph, Maon, and Paran, etc., are pasture wastes beyond the cultivated grounds adjoining these towns or places; verdant in spring, but dusty, withered, and dreary at the end of summer. Charbah also occurs, expressing dryness and desolation: Ps 102:6, "desert," commonly translated "waste places" or "desolation." Also Jeshimon, denoting the wastes on both sides of the Dead Sea, in the historical books. The transition from "pasture land" to "desert" appears Ps 65:12, "the pastures of the wilderness" (Joe 2:22.).
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Now Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he took the flock to the back of the waste land and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Now Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he took the flock to the back of the waste land and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
And they said, The God of the Hebrews has come to us: let us then go three days' journey into the waste land to make an offering to the Lord our God, so that he may not send death on us by disease or the sword.
And they said, The God of the Hebrews has come to us: let us then go three days' journey into the waste land to make an offering to the Lord our God, so that he may not send death on us by disease or the sword.
So our cattle will have to go with us, not one may be kept back; for they are needed for the worship of the Lord our God; we have no knowledge what offering we have to give till we come to the place.
So our cattle will have to go with us, not one may be kept back; for they are needed for the worship of the Lord our God; we have no knowledge what offering we have to give till we come to the place.
And a mixed band of people went with them; and flocks and herds in great numbers.
And a mixed band of people went with them; and flocks and herds in great numbers.
And when they had gone away from Rephidim and had come into the waste land of Sinai, they put up their tents in the waste land before the mountain: there Israel put up its tents.
And when they had gone away from Rephidim and had come into the waste land of Sinai, they put up their tents in the waste land before the mountain: there Israel put up its tents.
Are flocks and herds to be put to death for them? or are all the fish in the sea to be got together so that they may be full?
Are flocks and herds to be put to death for them? or are all the fish in the sea to be got together so that they may be full?
Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a great number of cattle: and when they saw that the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead was a good place for cattle;
Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a great number of cattle: and when they saw that the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead was a good place for cattle;
Falling on the grass of the waste land: and the little hills are glad on every side.
Falling on the grass of the waste land: and the little hills are glad on every side.
The waste land and the dry places will be glad; the lowland will have joy and be full of flowers.
The waste land and the dry places will be glad; the lowland will have joy and be full of flowers.
And he said to me, These waters are flowing out to the east part of the land and down into the Arabah; and they will go to the sea, and the waters will be made sweet.
And he said to me, These waters are flowing out to the east part of the land and down into the Arabah; and they will go to the sea, and the waters will be made sweet.
Have no fear, you beasts of the field, for the grass-lands of the waste are becoming green, for the trees are producing fruit, the fig-tree and the vine give out their strength.
Have no fear, you beasts of the field, for the grass-lands of the waste are becoming green, for the trees are producing fruit, the fig-tree and the vine give out their strength.
Hastings
Morish
See WILDERNESS.
Smith
Desert.
Not a stretch of sand, an utterly barren waste, but a wild, uninhabited region. The words rendered in the Authorized Version by "desert," when used in the historical books denote definite localities.
1. ARABAH. This word means that very depressed and enclosed region--the deepest and the hottest chasm in the world--the sunken valley north and south of the Dead Sea, but more particularly the former. [ARABAH] Arabah in the sense of the Jordan valley is translated by the word "desert" only in
See Arabah
2. MIDBAR. This word, which our translators have most frequently rendered by "desert," is accurately "the pasture ground." It is most frequently used for those tracts of waste land which lie beyond the cultivated ground in the immediate neighborhood of the towns and villages of Palestine, and which are a very familiar feature to the traveller in that country.
3. CHARBAH appears to have the force of dryness, and thence of desolation. It is rendered "desert" in Psal 102:6; Isai 48:21; Ezek 13:4 The term commonly employed for it in the Authorized Version is "waste places" or "desolation."
4. JESHIMON, with the definite article, apparently denotes the waste tracts on both sides of the Dead Sea. In all these cases it is treated as a proper name in the Authorized Version. Without the article it occurs in a few passages of poetry in the following of which it is rendered; "desert:"
See Jeshimon
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Now Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he took the flock to the back of the waste land and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
I let myself be seen by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God, the Ruler of all; but they had no knowledge of my name Yahweh.
And Moses said to the Lord, The people will not be able to come up the mountain, for you gave us orders to put limits round the mountain, marking it out and making it holy.
How frequently did they go against him in the waste land, and give him cause for grief in the dry places!
They gave way to their evil desires in the waste land, and put God to the test in the dry places.
See, I am doing a new thing; now it is starting; will you not take note of it? I will even make a way in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country. The beasts of the field will give me honour, the jackals and the ostriches: because I send out waters in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country, to give drink to the people whom I have taken for myself: