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.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And I put thy bounds from the sea of sedge, and even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert even to the river: for I will give into your hand those inhabiting the land, and thou drove them out from before thee.
And from Bamoth, the valley which is in the field of Moab, the head of Pisgah, and looking upon the face of Jeshimon.
Every place which the sole of your foot shall tread upon it, to you shall it be, from the desert and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, and even to the last sea shall be your boundary.
The pastures of the desert shall drop, and the hills shall be girded with joy. The lambs of the sheep were clothed, and the valleys shall be covered with corn; they shall shout for joy, they shall also sing.
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/juliasmith'>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).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And Abraham will rise early in the morning, and take food, and a leathern bottle of water, and give to Hagar (putting upon her shoulder), and the child, and will send her away: and she will go forth and wander in the desert to the well of the oath.
And he will dwell in the desert Paran: and his mother will take to him a wife from the land of Egypt
And Moses was feeding the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he will lead the sheep behind the desert, and he will come to the mountain of God, to Horeb.
And Jehovah will say to Aaron, Go to the meeting of Moses, to the desert And he will go, and will meet with him in the mount of God, and will kiss him.
And they will remove from Rephidim, and they will come to the desert of Sinai, and they will encamp in the desert; and Israel will encamp there before the mountain.
And I put thy bounds from the sea of sedge, and even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert even to the river: for I will give into your hand those inhabiting the land, and thou drove them out from before thee.
Then shall the land delight with its Sabbaths, all the days of its desolation, and ye in the land of your enemies: then shall the land rest and delight with its Sabbaths.
And from Bamoth, the valley which is in the field of Moab, the head of Pisgah, and looking upon the face of Jeshimon.
And from Bamoth, the valley which is in the field of Moab, the head of Pisgah, and looking upon the face of Jeshimon.
And the sons of Israel will remove and will encamp in the deserts of Moab, from the other side of Jordan at Jericho.
And Balak will take Balaam to the head of Peor, projecting upon the face of the desert
Every place which the sole of your foot shall tread upon it, to you shall it be, from the desert and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, and even to the last sea shall be your boundary.
And Moses will go up from the desert of Moab to mount Nebo, the head of Pisgah, which is upon the face of Jericho: and Jehovah will cause him to see all the land of Gilead, even to Dan.
And the sons of Israel will weep for Moses in the desert of Moab thirty days: and the days of the weeping of the mourning for Moses will be finished.
From the desert and this Lebanon, and even to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and even to the great sea, from the going down of the sun, shall be your bound.
And the sons of Israel will encamp in Gilgal, and they will do the passover in the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, in the plain of Jericho.
And Eliab his brother the great, will hear in his speaking to the men, and Eliab's anger will kindle against David, and he will say, Why this camest thou down? and upon whom didst thou cast those few sheep in the desert? I knew thy pride and the evil of thy heart, for in order to see the battle thou camest down.
And Saul will rise and go down to the desert of Ziph, and with him three thousand men the chosen of Israel, to seek out David in the desert of Ziph.
And now send quickly and announce to David, saying, Thou wilt not lodge this night in Araboth of the desert, and also passing over, thou shalt pass over, lest he shall swallow up to the king and to all the people which are with him.
O enemy! desolations were wholly finished, and thou didst tear down cities; their remembrance perished with them.
How often they will embitter him in the desert! they will grieve him in the waste.
I was like to the pelican of the desert: I was as the owl of the dry places.
And they will desire a desire in the desert, and they will tempt God in the waste.
For the fortified city was separated, the habitation being cast out and forsaken as the desert: there shall the Isaiah 27:calf feed, and there he shall lie down, and there he finished its branches.
Until the spirit shall be poured upon us from on high, and the desert be for Carmel, and Carmel be reckoned for a forest.
The earth mourning, languished: Lebanon being ashamed, pined away: Sharon was as a sterile region, and Bashan was shaken, and Carmel.
The desert and the dryness shall be glad for them; and the sterile region shall rejoice and blossom as the meadow flower.
The desert and the dryness shall be glad for them; and the sterile region shall rejoice and blossom as the meadow flower.
Then shall the lame one leap as the stag, and the tongue of the dumb shall give forth the voice: for waters brake forth in the desert, and torrents in the sterile region.
The voice of him calling in the desert, Prepare ye the way of Jehovah, make straight in the sterile region a highway for our God.
The voice of him calling in the desert, Prepare ye the way of Jehovah, make straight in the sterile region a highway for our God.
I will give in the desert the cedar, the acacia, and the myrtle, and the tree of oil; I will set in the sterile region the the elm and the box tree together.
Behold me doing a new thing; now it shall spring forth, shall ye not know it? I will also set a way in the desert, rivers in the waste. The beast of the field shall know me, the sea monster and the daughters of the ostrich: for I gave waters in the desert, rivers in the waste to give drink to my people, my chosen.
And they thirsted not causing them to go in dry places: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: and he will cleave asunder the rock, and the waters will flow out
Wherefore, I came, and no man? I called and none answered. Being short, was my hand shortened from redeeming? and if not power in me to deliver behold, in my rebuke I will dry up the sea; I will set the rivers a desert: their fish shall stink from no water, and they shall die with thirst
For Jehovah comforted Zion: he comforted all her wastes, and he will set her desert as Eden, and her sterile region as the garden of Jehovah; joy and gladness shall be found in her confession, and the voice of song.
In that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A clear wind of the naked hills in the desert the way of the daughter of my people, not for winnowing, and not for separating.
Thy prophets were as the foxes in the sterile regions, Israel
Ye shall not fear, ye beasts of the field, for the pastures of the desert sprang forth, for the tree bore its fruit, the fig tree and the vine gave their strength.
For this is he spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, A voice of him crying in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.
And his disciples say to him, Whence to us, in a lonely place, so many loaves, to satisfy such a crowd I
What man of you, having one hundred. sheep, and having lost one of them, leaves not the ninety-nine in the desert, and goes for the one lost, till he find it
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.).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And Moses was feeding the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he will lead the sheep behind the desert, and he will come to the mountain of God, to Horeb.
And Moses was feeding the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he will lead the sheep behind the desert, and he will come to the mountain of God, to Horeb.
And they will say, The God of the Hebrews called to us; we will go now a way of three days into the desert, and we will sacrifice to Jehovah our God, lest he fall upon us with death or with the sword.
And they will say, The God of the Hebrews called to us; we will go now a way of three days into the desert, and we will sacrifice to Jehovah our God, lest he fall upon us with death or with the sword.
And also our cattle shall go with us; a hoof shall not be left; for from us we shall take to serve Jehovah our God; and we shall not know what we shall serve Jehovah till we come there.
And also our cattle shall go with us; a hoof shall not be left; for from us we shall take to serve Jehovah our God; and we shall not know what we shall serve Jehovah till we come there.
And also a great mixture went up with them; and sheep and oxen, very much cattle.
And also a great mixture went up with them; and sheep and oxen, very much cattle.
And they will remove from Rephidim, and they will come to the desert of Sinai, and they will encamp in the desert; and Israel will encamp there before the mountain.
And they will remove from Rephidim, and they will come to the desert of Sinai, and they will encamp in the desert; and Israel will encamp there before the mountain.
Shall the sheep and the oxen be slaughtered for them and suffice for them? and if he shall gather all the fish of the sea to them, and it suffice for them?
Shall the sheep and the oxen be slaughtered for them and suffice for them? and if he shall gather all the fish of the sea to them, and it suffice for them?
And much cattle was to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad exceedingly strong: and they will see the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place a place of cattle.
And much cattle was to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad exceedingly strong: and they will see the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place a place of cattle.
The pastures of the desert shall drop, and the hills shall be girded with joy.
The pastures of the desert shall drop, and the hills shall be girded with joy.
I was like to the pelican of the desert: I was as the owl of the dry places.
I was like to the pelican of the desert: I was as the owl of the dry places.
The desert and the dryness shall be glad for them; and the sterile region shall rejoice and blossom as the meadow flower.
The desert and the dryness shall be glad for them; and the sterile region shall rejoice and blossom as the meadow flower.
And he will say to me, These waters going forth to the circuit of the east, and they went down to Arabia and came into the sea: being brought forth to the sea and the waters were healed.
And he will say to me, These waters going forth to the circuit of the east, and they went down to Arabia and came into the sea: being brought forth to the sea and the waters were healed.
Ye shall not fear, ye beasts of the field, for the pastures of the desert sprang forth, for the tree bore its fruit, the fig tree and the vine gave their strength.
Ye shall not fear, ye beasts of the field, for the pastures of the desert sprang forth, for the tree bore its fruit, the fig tree and the vine gave 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
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And Moses was feeding the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he will lead the sheep behind the desert, and he will come to the mountain of God, to Horeb.
And I shall be seen to Abraham, to Isaak, and to Jacob, by God Almighty; and my name Jehovah I was not known to them.
And Moses will say to Jehovah, The people shall not be able to come up to mount Sinai, for thou didst protest to us, saying, Set bounds to the mountain, and consecrate it
How often they will embitter him in the desert! they will grieve him in the waste.
And they will desire a desire in the desert, and they will tempt God in the waste.
Behold me doing a new thing; now it shall spring forth, shall ye not know it? I will also set a way in the desert, rivers in the waste. The beast of the field shall know me, the sea monster and the daughters of the ostrich: for I gave waters in the desert, rivers in the waste to give drink to my people, my chosen.