'Wilderness' in the Bible

Who made the world like a wildernessAnd overthrew its cities,Who did not permit his prisoners to return home?’

Send lambs to the ruler of the land [you Moabites],From Sela [that is, Petra in Edom] through the wilderness to the mountain of the Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem).

For the fields of Heshbon have languished and withered, and the vines of Sibmah as well;The lords of the nations have trampled down [Moab’s] choice vine branches,Which reached as far as Jazer and wandered into the wilderness;Its tendrils stretched out, they passed over [the shores of] the [Dead] Sea.

Now look at the land of the Chaldeans (Babylonia)—this is the people which was not; the Assyrians allocated Tyre for desert creatures—they set up their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin.

For the fortified city is isolated,A settlement deserted and abandoned like the desert;There the calf will graze,And there it will lie down and feed on its branches.

Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high,And the wilderness becomes a fertile field,And the fertile field is valued as a forest.

Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,And righteousness will live in the fertile field.

The wilderness and the dry land will be glad;The Arabah (desert) will shout in exultation and blossomLike the autumn crocus.

Then the lame will leap like a deer,And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.For waters will break forth in the wildernessAnd streams in the desert.

A voice of one is calling out,“Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness [remove the obstacles];Make straight and smooth in the desert a highway for our God.

“I will open rivers on the barren heightsAnd springs in the midst of the valleys;I will make the wilderness a reed-pool of waterAnd the dry land springs of water.

“I will put the cedar in the wilderness,The acacia, the myrtle and the olive tree;I will place the juniper in the desertTogether with the box tree and the cypress,

Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voices,The villages where Kedar lives.Let the inhabitants of Sela shout for joy,Let them shout joyfully from the tops of the mountains.

“Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing,Now it will spring forth;Will you not be aware of it?I will even put a road in the wilderness,Rivers in the desert.

“The beasts of the field will honor Me,Jackals and ostriches,Because I have given waters in the wildernessAnd rivers in the desert,To give drink to My people, My chosen.

For the Lord will comfort Zion [in her captivity];He will comfort all her ruins.And He will make her wilderness like Eden,And her desert like the garden of the Lord;Joy and gladness will be found in her,Thanksgiving and the voice of a melody.

Who led them through the depths [of the Red Sea],Like a horse in the wilderness, [so that] they did not stumble?

Your holy cities have become a wilderness,Zion has become a wilderness,Jerusalem a desolation.