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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And I will make thy coasts from the reed sea unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river. I will deliver the inhabiters of the land into thine hand, and thou shalt drive them out before thee.
and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab in the top of Pisgah which boweth toward the wilderness.
All the places whereon the soles of your feet shall tread, shall be yours: even from the wilderness and from Lebanon and from the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coasts be.
They shall drop upon the dwellings of the wilderness; and the little hills shall rejoice on every side. The folds shall be full of sheep; the valleys also shall stand so thick with corn, that they shall laugh and 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/mstc'>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 Abraham rose up early in the morning and took bread and a bottle with water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulders with the lad also, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered up and down in the wilderness of Beersheba.
And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran. And his mother got him a wife out of the land of Egypt.
Moses kept the sheep of Jethro his father-in-law, priest of Midian, and he drove the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, Horeb.
Then said the LORD unto Aaron, "Go meet Moses in the wilderness." And he went and met him in the mount of God and kissed him.
For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai and had pitched their tents in the wilderness. And there Israel pitched, before the mount.
And I will make thy coasts from the reed sea unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river. I will deliver the inhabiters of the land into thine hand, and thou shalt drive them out before thee.
Then the land shall rejoice in her Sabbaths, as long as it lieth void and ye in your enemies' land: even then shall the land keep holy day and rejoice in her Sabbaths.
and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab in the top of Pisgah which boweth toward the wilderness.
and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab in the top of Pisgah which boweth toward the wilderness.
And the children of Israel removed, and pitched in the fields of Moab, on the other side of Jordan, by Jericho.
All the places whereon the soles of your feet shall tread, shall be yours: even from the wilderness and from Lebanon and from the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coasts be.
And Moses went from the fields of Moab up into mount Nebo which is the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land of Gilead even unto Dan,
And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the fields of Moab thirty days. And the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
from the wilderness and this Lebanon unto the great river Euphrates; and all the land of the Hittites, even unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coasts.
And the children of Israel pitched their tents in Gilgal, and held the feast of Passover the fourteenth day of the month, at even, in the fields of Jericho.
And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the man and was angry with David and said, "Why camest thou away, and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride and the malice of thine heart, that thou art come to see the battle."
Then Saul arose and went to the wilderness of Ziph, and three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, for to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.
Now therefore send quickly and show David, saying, 'Tarry not all night in the fields of the wilderness, but get thee over, lest the king be devoured and all the people that are with him.'"
O thou enemy, thy destructions are come to a perpetual end; even as the cities which thou hast destroyed, their memorial is perished with them.
O how oft did they grieve him in the wilderness? How many a time did they provoke him in the desert?
I am become like a pelican in the wilderness, and like an owl in a broken wall.
A lust came upon them in the wilderness, so that they tempted God in the desert.
The strong cities shall be desolate, and the fair cities shall be left like a wilderness. The cattle shall feed and lie there, and the sheep shall eat it up.
Unto the time that the spirit be poured upon us from above. Then shall the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the plenteous field shall be reckoned for a wood.
the desolate earth is in heaviness. Lebanon taketh it but for a sport, that it is hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness: Bashan and Carmel are turned upside down.
But the desert and wilderness shall rejoice, the waste ground shall be glad, and flourish as the lily.
But the desert and wilderness shall rejoice, the waste ground shall be glad, and flourish as the lily.
Then shall the lame man leap as a hart and the dumb man's tongue shall give thanks. In the wilderness also, there shall wells spring, and floods of water in the desert.
A voice crieth in the wilderness, "Prepare the way for the LORD, make straight the path for our God in the desert.
A voice crieth in the wilderness, "Prepare the way for the LORD, make straight the path for our God in the desert.
I plant in the waste ground trees of Cedar, Box, Mire and Olives. And in the dry I set Fir trees, Elms, and Hawthorns together.
Behold, I shall make a new thing, and shortly shall it appear. Ye shall well know it; I told it you afore, but I will tell it you again. I will make streets in the desert, and rivers of water in the wilderness. The wild beasts shall worship me: the dragon, and the Ostrich. For I shall give water in the wilderness, and streams in the desert: that I may give drink to my people, whom I choose.
that they suffered no thirst, when they travailed in the wilderness. He clave the rocks asunder, and the water gushed out."
For why would no man receive me, when I came? And when I called, no man gave me answer. Was my hand clean smitten off, that it might not help? Or had I not power to deliver? Lo, at a word I drink up the sea, and of water floods I make dry land: so that for want of water, the fish corrupt and die of thirst.
For the LORD hath compassion on Zion and hath compassion on all that is decayed therein, and will make her wilderness as paradise, and her desert as the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, with thanksgiving and the voice of praise.
Then shall it be said to the people and to Jerusalem, "A strong wind in the high places of the wilderness cometh through the way of my people; but neither to fan nor to cleanse.
O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes upon the dry field:
Be not ye afraid neither, O ye beasts of the field; for the pastures shall be green and the trees shall bear their fruit, the fig trees and vineyards shall give their increase.
This is he of whom it is spoken by the Prophet Isaiah, which sayeth, "The voice of a crier in wilderness, 'Prepare the Lord's way and make his paths straight.'"
And his disciples said unto him, "Whence should we get so much bread in the wilderness as should suffice so great a multitude?"
"What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them doth not leave ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find him?
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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Moses kept the sheep of Jethro his father-in-law, priest of Midian, and he drove the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, Horeb.
Moses kept the sheep of Jethro his father-in-law, priest of Midian, and he drove the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, Horeb.
I know not the LORD, neither will let Israel go." And they said, "The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, that we may sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he smite us either with pestilence or with sword."
I know not the LORD, neither will let Israel go." And they said, "The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, that we may sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he smite us either with pestilence or with sword."
Our cattle therefore shall go with us, and there shall not one hoof be left behind, for thereof must we take to serve the LORD our God. Moreover, we cannot know wherewith we shall serve the LORD, until we come thither."
Our cattle therefore shall go with us, and there shall not one hoof be left behind, for thereof must we take to serve the LORD our God. Moreover, we cannot know wherewith we shall serve the LORD, until we come thither."
And much common people went also with them, and sheep, and oxen, and cattle exceeding much.
And much common people went also with them, and sheep, and oxen, and cattle exceeding much.
For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai and had pitched their tents in the wilderness. And there Israel pitched, before the mount.
For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai and had pitched their tents in the wilderness. And there Israel pitched, before the mount.
Shall the sheep and the oxen be slain for them to find them, either shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together to serve them?"
Shall the sheep and the oxen be slain for them to find them, either shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together to serve them?"
The children of Reuben and the children of Gad had an exceeding great multitude of cattle. And when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that it was an apt place for cattle,
The children of Reuben and the children of Gad had an exceeding great multitude of cattle. And when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that it was an apt place for cattle,
They shall drop upon the dwellings of the wilderness; and the little hills shall rejoice on every side.
They shall drop upon the dwellings of the wilderness; and the little hills shall rejoice on every side.
I am become like a pelican in the wilderness, and like an owl in a broken wall.
I am become like a pelican in the wilderness, and like an owl in a broken wall.
But the desert and wilderness shall rejoice, the waste ground shall be glad, and flourish as the lily.
But the desert and wilderness shall rejoice, the waste ground shall be glad, and flourish as the lily.
Then said he unto me, "This water that floweth out toward the East, and runneth down into the plain field, cometh into the sea: and from the sea it runneth out, and maketh the waters whole.
Then said he unto me, "This water that floweth out toward the East, and runneth down into the plain field, cometh into the sea: and from the sea it runneth out, and maketh the waters whole.
Be not ye afraid neither, O ye beasts of the field; for the pastures shall be green and the trees shall bear their fruit, the fig trees and vineyards shall give their increase.
Be not ye afraid neither, O ye beasts of the field; for the pastures shall be green and the trees shall bear their fruit, the fig trees and vineyards shall give their increase.
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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Moses kept the sheep of Jethro his father-in-law, priest of Midian, and he drove the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, Horeb.
and I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac and Jacob an Almighty God: but in my name Jehovah was I not known unto them.
Then Moses said unto the LORD, "The people cannot come up in to mount Sinai, for thou chargedest us saying, 'Set marks about the hill and sanctify it.'"
O how oft did they grieve him in the wilderness? How many a time did they provoke him in the desert?
A lust came upon them in the wilderness, so that they tempted God in the desert.
Behold, I shall make a new thing, and shortly shall it appear. Ye shall well know it; I told it you afore, but I will tell it you again. I will make streets in the desert, and rivers of water in the wilderness. The wild beasts shall worship me: the dragon, and the Ostrich. For I shall give water in the wilderness, and streams in the desert: that I may give drink to my people, whom I choose.