Encyclopedia entry
Desert
Disambiguation
The source enumerates 5 distinct subjects under Desert. Jump to one below, or read in order.
Desert (1)
#Heb. midbar, “pasture-ground;” an open tract for pasturage; a common (Joel 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 (Gen. 21:14, 21; Ex. 4:27; 19:2; Josh. 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 (1 Kings 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 (1 Sam. 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 Matt. 3:3; 15:33; Luke 15:4.
Desert (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” (Josh. 5:10; 2 Kings 25:5), “the plains of Moab” (Num. 22:1; Deut. 34:1, 8), “the plains of the wilderness” (2 Sam. 17:16).
Desert (3)
#In the Revised Version of Num. 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 (Num. 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; Deut. 11:24. (See JESHIMON.)
Desert (4)
#A dry place; hence a desolation (Ps. 9:6), desolate (Lev. 26:34); the rendering of the Hebrew word horbah’. It is rendered “desert” only in Ps. 102:6, Isa. 48:21, and Ezek. 13:4, where it means the wilderness of Sinai.
Desert (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” (32:15, midbar). It is a symbol of temptation, solitude, and persecution (Isa. 27:10, midbar_; 33:9, _arabah).
Also from Smith's (1884) +−
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.
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 (Ezekiel 47:8) 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. (Exodus 3:1; 6:3; 19:2) 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.” 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:” (Psalms 78:40; 106:14; Isaiah 43:19,20)
In the Bible
99
Verses where Desert is named. Berean Standard Bible (public domain).
- 1 Chronicles 5:9
They also settled in the east as far as the edge of the desert that extends to the Euphrates River, because their livestock had increased in the land of Gilead.
- 1 Kings 19:15
Then the LORD said to him, “Go back by the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you arrive, you are to anoint Hazael as king over Aram.
- 1 Samuel 13:8
And Saul waited seven days for the time appointed by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the troops began to desert Saul.
- 2 Chronicles 26:10
Since he had much livestock in the foothills and in the plain, he built towers in the desert and dug many cisterns. And since he was a lover of the soil, he had farmers and vinedressers in the hill country and in the fertile fields.
- 2 Kings 3:8
Then he asked, “Which way shall we go up?” “By way of the Desert of Edom,” replied Joram.
- Acts 7:30
After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.
+93 more verses naming Desert.
Scripture on Desert
95
See all 95 +−
- Numbers 33Jeremiah 4Mark 6Exodus 23Numbers 21Psalms 102Psalms 106Psalms 107Isaiah 16Isaiah 34Isaiah 40Isaiah 41Jeremiah 9Jeremiah 17Jeremiah 50Ezekiel 13Ezekiel 47Joel 2Zephaniah 2Matthew 14Luke 9Genesis 14Genesis 16Genesis 21Exodus 4Exodus 5Exodus 15Exodus 17Exodus 18Exodus 19Leviticus 11Leviticus 26Numbers 20Numbers 22Numbers 27Deuteronomy 11Deuteronomy 14Deuteronomy 32Deuteronomy 34Joshua 1Joshua 51 Samuel 131 Samuel 172 Samuel 171 Kings 91 Kings 192 Kings 32 Kings 251 Chronicles 52 Chronicles 26Job 1Job 24Job 38Psalms 9Psalms 28Psalms 74Psalms 75Psalms 105Proverbs 21Isaiah 13Isaiah 14Isaiah 21Isaiah 23Isaiah 27Isaiah 32Isaiah 33Isaiah 42Isaiah 48Isaiah 50Isaiah 51Jeremiah 3Jeremiah 5Jeremiah 13Jeremiah 22Jeremiah 25Jeremiah 48Ezekiel 23Ezekiel 29Hosea 2Hosea 13Joel 3Malachi 1Matthew 3Matthew 24Mark 1Luke 4Luke 15John 6Acts 7Acts 8
Entries that reference Desert
6
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Desert references
22
More illustrations of Desert
3
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Voices on Desert
22
Surfaced by name match — accuracy varies by title clarity.
Sources · Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884)
Public-domain text. Modernized only where archaic spelling impedes reading; original facts preserved. Verify against an authoritative modern reference before quoting.