Desert

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, Psa 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, Num 21:20 ; also the region between Canaan and the Euphrates, Exo 23:31 Deu 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.\par

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. See Arabah. Arabah, in the sense of the Jordan valley, is translated by the word "desert" only in Eze 47:8.

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. Exo 3:1; Exo 6:3; Exo 19:2.

3. Charbah appears to have the force of dryness, and thence of desolation. It is rendered "desert" in Psa 102:6; Isa 48:21; Eze 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:" Psa 78:40; Psa 106:14; Isa 43:19-20.

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" (Exo 3:1; Exo 5:3; Exo 19:2), means a pasture ground (from daabar, "to drive flocks") (Exo 10:26; Exo 12:38; Num 11:22; Num 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: Psa 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 Psa 65:12, "the pastures of the wilderness" (Joe 2:22.).

(Gr. ἔρημος; see Rechenberg, De voce ἔρημος, Lips. 1680), a word which is sparingly employed in the A.V. to translate four Hebrew terms, and even in the rendering of these is not employed uniformly. The same term is sometimes translated “wilderness,” sometimes “desert,” and once “south.” In one place we find a Hebrew term treated as a proper name, and in another translated as an appellative. This gives rise to considerable indefiniteness in many passages of Scripture, and creates confusion in attempts at interpretation. But, besides all this, the ordinary meaning attached to the English word “desert” is not that which can be legitimately attached to any of the Hebrew words it is employed to represent. We usually apply it to “a sterile sandy plain, without inhabitants, without water, and without vegetation” such, for example, as the desert of Sahara, or that which is overlooked by the Pyramids, and with which many travelers are familiar. No such region was known to the sacred writers, nor is any such once referred to in Scripture. It will consequently be necessary to explain in this article the several words which our translators have rendered “desert,” and to show that, as used in the historical books, they denote definite localities. SEE TOPOGRAPHICAL TERMS.

1. MIDBAR, מדְּבָּר(Sept. ἔρημος, and ἄνυδρος γῆ), is of very frequent occurrence, and is usually rendered “wilderness” (Gen 14:6, etc.), though in some places “desert” (Exo 3:1; Exo 5:1, etc.), and in Psa 75:6, “south.” It properly designates pastureground, being derived from דָּבִר, dabar’ “to drive,” significant of the pastoral custom of driving the flocks out to feed in the morning, and home again at night; and it means a wide, open tract used for pasturage, q. d. a “common;” thus, in Joe 2:22, “The pastures of the desert shall flourish.” It is the name most commonly applied to the country lying between Palestine and Egypt, including the peninsula of Sinai, through which the Israelites wandered (Gen 21:14; Gen 21:21; Exo 4:27; Exo 19:2; Jos 1:6, etc.). Now the peninsula of Sinai is a mountainous region; in early spring its scanty soil produces grass and green herbs, and, with the exception of one little plain on the north side of the great mountain-chain, there is no sand whatever. This small plain is expressly distinguished from the rest by the name Debbet er-Ramleh, “plain of sand” (Robinson, Bib. Res. 1:77; Porter, Handbook for Syria and Pal. p. 2 sq.). On the other hand, in this whole region streams of water are not found except in winter and after heavy rain; fountains are very rare, and there are no settled inhabitants. Stanley, accordingly, has shown that “sand is the exception and not the rule of the Arabian Desert” of the peninsula of Sinai (Palest. p. 8, 9, 64). As to the other features of a desert, certainly the peninsula of Sinai is no plain, but a region extremely variable in height, and diversified even at this day by oases and valleys of verdure and vegetation, and by frequent wells, which were all probably far more abundant in those earlier times than they now are. With regard to the Wilderness of the Wanderings — for which Midbar or grazing-tract (almost our “prairie”), is almost invariably used — this term is therefore most appropriate; for we must never forget that the Israelites had flocks and herds with them during the whole of their passage to the Promised Land. They had them when they left Egypt (Exo 10:26; Exo 12:38); they had them at Hazeroth, the middle point of the wanderings (Num 11:22), and some of the tribes possessed them in large numbers immediately before the transit of the Jordan (Num 32:1). In speaking of the Wilderness of the Wanderings the word “desert” occurs as the rendering of Midbar, in Exo 3:1; Exo 5:3; Exo 19:2; Num 33:15-16; and in more than one of these it is evidently employed for the sake of euphony merely. SEE EXODE.

Midbar is also used to denote the wilderness of Arabia; but generally with the article חִמַּדְבָּר, “the desert” (1Ki 9:18). The wilderness of Arabia is not sandy; it is a vast undulating plain, parched and barren during summer and autumn, but in winter and early spring yielding good pasture to the flocks of the Bedawin that roam over it. Hence the propriety of the expression pastures of the wilderness (Psa 65:13; Joe 1:19; compare Luk 15:4). Thus it is that the Arabian tribes retreat into their deserts on the approach of the autumnal rains, and when spring has ended and the droughts commence, return to the lands of rivers and mountains, in search of the pastures which the deserts no longer afford. It may also be observed that even deserts in the summer time are interspersed with fertile spots and clumps of herbage (Hacket’s Illustration of Scripture, p. 25). The Midbar of Judah is the bleak mountainous region lying along the western shore of the Dead Sea, where David fed his father’s flocks, and hid from Saul (1Sa 17:28; 1Sa 26:2 sq.). The meaning of Midbar in both these instances is thus likewise a district without settled inhabitants, without streams of water, but adapted for pasturage. It is the country of nomads, as distinguished from that of the agricultural and settled people (Isa 35:1; Isaiah 1, 2; Jer 4:11). The Greek equivalents in the New Test. are ἔρημος and ἐρημία. John preached in the “wilderness,” i.e. the open, unpopulated country, and our Lord fed the multitudes in the “wilderness” or wild region east of the Dead Sea (Mat 3:3; Mat 15:33; Luk 15:4). SEE WILDERNESS.

Midbar 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 traveler in that country. In spring these tracts are covered with a rich green verdure of turf, and small shrubs, and herbs of various kinds. But at the end of summer the herbage withers, the turf dries up and is powdered thick with the dust of the chalky soil, and the whole has certainly a most dreary aspect. An example of this is furnished by the hills through which the path from Bethany to Jericho pursues its winding descent. In the spring, so abundant is the pasturage of these hills that they are the resort of the flocks from Jerusalem on the one hand and Jericho on the other, and even from the Arabs on the other side of Jordan. Even in the month of September, though the turf is only visible on close inspection, large flocks of goats and sheep may be seen browsing, scattered over the slopes, or stretched out in a long, even line like a regiment of soldiers. A striking example of the same thing, and of the manner in which this waste pasture-land gradually melts into the uncultivated fields, is seen in making one’s way up through the mountains of Benjamin, due west, from Jericho to Mukhmas or Jeba. These Midbars seem to have borne the name of the town to which they were most contiguous, for example, Bethaven (in the region last referred to); Ziph, Maon, and Paran, in the south of Judah; Gibeon, Jeruel, etc., etc. SEE VILLAGE. In the poetical books “desert” is found as the translation of Midbar in Deu 32:10; Job 24:5; Isa 21:1; Jer 25:24. SEE MIDBAR.

2. ARABAH’ (עֲרָבָה, Sept. ῎Αραβα and δυσμή), from עָרִב, arab’, to dry up (Gesenius, Thes. p. 1060), i.e. parched (“ desert” in Isa 35:1; Isa 35:6; xl, 3; 41:19; 2:3; Jer 2:6; Jer 17:6; Jeremiah 1, 12; Eze 47:8; elsewhere usually “plain”), which is either applied to any and tracts in general, or specially to the Arabah (as it is still called), or lone desert tract or plain of the Jordan and Dead Sea, shut in by mountains, and extending from the lake of Tiberias to the Elanitic Gulf; called by the Greeks Αὐλών (Euseb. Onomast.). The more extended application of the name by the Hebrews is successfully traced by professor Robinson from Gesenius: “In connection with the Red Sea and Elath” (Deu 1:1; Deu 2:8). “As extending to the lake of Tiberias” (Jos 12:3; 2Sa 4:7; 2Ki 25:4). “Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea” (Jos 3:16; Jos 12:3; Deu 4:49). “The arboth (plains) of Jericho” (Jos 5:10; 2Ki 25:5). “Plains (arboth) of Moab,” i.e. opposite Jericho, probably pastured by the Moabites, though not within their proper territory (Deu 24:1; Deu 24:8; Num 22:1). In the East, wide, extended plains are usually liable to drought, and consequently to barrenness. Hence the Hebrew language describes a plan, a desert, and an unfruitful waste by this same word. Occasionally, indeed, this term is employed to denote any dry or sterile region, as in Job 24:5, and Isa 40:3. It is thus used, however, only in poetry, and is equivalent to Midbar, to which it is the poetic parallel in Isa 35:1 : “The wilderness (Midbar) shall be glad for them, and the desert (Arabah) shall rejoice, etc.;” also in 41:19. Midbar may be regarded as describing a region in relation to its use by man — a pastoral region; Arabah, in relation to its physical qualities — a wilderness (Stanley, Palest. p. 481).

But in the vast majority of cases in which it occurs in the Bible, Arabah is the specific name given either to the whole, or a part of the deep valley extending from Tiberias to the Gulf of Akabah. With the article הָעֲרָבָה, it denotes, in the historical portions of Scripture, the whole of the valley, or at least that part of it included in the territory of the Israelites (Deu 1:7; Deu 3:17; Jos 12:1; etc.); when the word is applied to other districts, or to distinct sections of the valley, the article is omitted, and the plural number is used. Thus we find “the plains of Moab” (עִרְבוֹת, Num 22:1, etc.); “the plains of Jericho” (Jos 4:13); “the plains of the wilderness” (2Sa 17:16). The southern section of this sterile valley still retains its ancient name, el-Arabah (Robinson, Bib. Res. 1:169; 2:186; Stanley, Palest. p. 84). It appears, therefore, that this term, when used, as it invariably is in the topographical records of the Bible, with the definite article, 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. True, in the present depopulated and neglected state of Palestine, the Jordan Valley is as and desolate a region as can be met with, but it was not always so. On the contrary, we have direct testimony to the fact that when the Israelites were flourishing, and later in the Roman times, the case was emphatically the reverse. Jericho (q.v.), “the city of palm-trees,” at the lower end of the valley, Bethshean (q.v.) at the upper, and Phasaelis in the center, were famed both in Jewish and profane history for the luxuriance of their vegetation (Joseph. Ant. 18:2, 2; 16:5, 2). When the abundant water- resources of the valley were properly husbanded and distributed, the tropical heat caused not barrenness, but tropical fertility, and here grew the balsam, the sugar-cane, and other plants requiring great heat, but also rich soil, for their culture. Arabah, in the sense of the Jordan Valley, is translated by the word “desert” only in Eze 47:8. In a more general sense of waste, deserted country-a meaning easily suggested by the idea of excessive heat contained in the root — “desert,” as the rendering of Arabah, occurs in the prophets and poetical books; as Isa 35:1; Isa 35:6; Isa 40:3; Isa 41:19; Isa 51:3; Jer 2:6; Jer 5:6; Jer 17:6; Jeremiah 1, 12; but this general sense is never found in the historical books. In these, to repeat once more, Arabah always denotes the Jordan Valley, the Ghor of the modern Arabs. SEE ARABAH.

3. YESHIMON’, יְשַׁימוֹן(Sept. ἄνυδρος and ἔρημος), from יָשָׁם, to lie waste (“wilderness,” Deu 32:10; Psa 48:7; “solitary,” Psa 107:4), in the historical books is used with the definite article, apparently to denote the waste tracts on both sides of the Dead Sea. In all these cases it is treated as a proper name in the A. V.: thus in Num 21:20, “The top of Pisgah, which looketh towards Jeshimon.” See also BETH-JESIMOTH. Without the article it occurs in a few passages of poetry, in the following of which it is rendered “desert:” Psa 78:40; Psa 106:14; Isa 43:19-20. This term expresses a greater extent of uncultivated country than the others (1Sa 23:19; 1Sa 23:24; Isa 43:19-20). It is especially applied to that desert of peninsular Arabia in which the Israelites sojourned under Moses (Num 21:20; Num 23:28). This was the most terrible of the deserts with which the Israelites were acquainted, and the only real desert in their immediate neighborhood. It is ‘described under ARABIA, as is also that Eastern desert extending from the eastern border of the country beyond Judaea to the Euphrates. It is emphatically called “the Desert,” without any proper name, in Exo 23:31; Deu 11:24. To this latter the term is equally applicable in the following poetical passages: Deu 32:10; Psa 68:7; Psa 78:40; Psa 106:14. It would appear from the reference in Deuteronomy — “waste, howling wilderness,” that this word was intended to be more expressive of utter wasteness than any of the others. In 1Sa 23:19; 1Sa 26:1, it evidently means the wilderness of Judah. SEE JESHIMON.

4. CHORBAH’, חָרְבָּה (Sept. ἔρημος, etc.; A.V. usually “waste,” “desolate,” etc.), from חָרִב, to be dried up, and hence desolate, is a more general term denoting a dry place (Isa 48:21), and hence desolation (Psa 9:6), or concretely desolate (Lev 26:31; Lev 26:33; Isa 49:14; Isa 64:10; Jer 7:34; Jer 22:5; Jer 25:9; Jer 25:11; Jer 25:18; Jer 27:12; Jer 44:2; Jer 44:6; Jer 44:22; Eze 5:14; Eze 25:13; Eze 29:9-10; Eze 25:4; Eze 28:8), or ruins (Eze 36:10; Eze 36:33; Eze 38:12; Mal 1:4; Isa 58:12; Isa 61:4). It is generally applied to what has been rendered desolate by man or neglect (Ezr 9:9; Psa 109:10; Isa 44:26; Isa 51:3; Isa 52:9; Jer 49:13; Eze 26:20; Eze 23:24; Eze 23:27; Eze 36:4; Dan 9:2). It is employed in Job 3:14, to denote buildings that speedily fall to ruin (comp. Isa 5:17, the ruined houses of the rich). The only passage where it expresses a natural waste or “wilderness” is Isa 48:21, where it refers to that of Sinai. It does not occur in any historical passage, and is rendered “desert” only in Psa 102:6; Isa 48:21; Eze 13:4.

5. The several deserts or wildernesses mentioned in Scripture (besides the above) are the following, which will be found under their respective names:

(1.) The Desert of Shut or Etham (Num 33:8; Exo 13:17; Exo 15:22);

(2.) the Desert of Paran (Num 10:12; Num 13:3);

(3.) the Desert of Sinai (Exodus 19);

(4.) the Desert of Sin (Exo 16:6);

(5.) the Desert of Zin (Num 20:1) — these are probably only different parts of the great Arabian Desert, distinguished by separate proper names;

(6.) the Desert of Judah, or Judaea (Psalms 68, in the title; Luk 1:80);

(7.) the Desert of Ziph (1Sa 23:14-15);

(8.) the Desert of Engedi (Jos 15:62);

(9.) the Desert of Carmel (Jos 15:55);

(10.) the Desert of Maon (1Sa 23:24);

(11.) the Desert of Tekoa (2Ch 20:20) — these are probably only parts of the Desert of Judah;

(12.) the Desert of Jericho, separating the Mount of Olives from the city of Jericho (Jer 52:8);

(13.) the Desert of Beth-Aven seems to be a part of Mount Ephraim (Jos 18:12);

(14.) the Desert of Damascus (1Ki 19:15) is the same as the Desert Syria, where Tadmor was built (1Ki 9:18).

6. “Desert” or “wilderness” is also the symbol in Scripture of temptation, solitude, and persecution (Isa 27:10; Isa 33:9). The figure is sometimes emblematical of spiritual things, as in Isa 41:19; also in Isa 32:15, where it refers to nations in which there was no knowledge of God or of divine truth, that they should be enlightened and made to produce fruit unto holiness. A desert is mentioned as the symbol of the Jewish Church and people, when they had forsaken their God (Isa 40:3); it is also spoken of with reference to the conversion of the Gentiles (Isa 35:1). The solitude of the desert is a subject often noticed (Job 38:26; Jer 9:2). The desert was considered the abode of evil spirits. or at least their occasional resort (Mat 12:43; Luk 11:24), an opinion held also by the heathen (Virg. AEn. 6:27).

Desert. In the Scriptures this term does not mean an utterly barren waste, but an uninhabited region. The Hebrew words translated in the English Versions by "desert" often denote definite localities. 1. Arabah. This refers to that very depressed region—the deepest valley in the world—the sunken valley north and south of the Dead Sea, but more particularly the former. Arabah in the sense of the Jordan valley is translated by the word "desert" only in Eze 47:8 A. V. The R. V. reads Arabah. 2. Midbar. This Hebrew word, frequently rendered "desert," R. V. "wilderness," 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. Exo 3:1; Exo 5:3; Exo 19:2. 3. Charbah appears to mean dryness, and thence desolation. It is rendered "desert" in Psa 102:6, R.V. "waste places," Isa 48:21; Eze 13:4, R. V. "waste places." 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 regions 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: " Psa 78:40; Psa 106:14; Isa 43:19-20.

See WILDERNESS.

DESERT.—See Wilderness.

See WILDERNESS

DESERT.—See Wilderness.

The Hebrew words translated in the Douay Version of the Bible by "desert" or "wilderness", and usually rendered by the Vulgate desertum, "solitude", or occasionally eremus, have not the same shade of meaning as the English word desert. The word wilderness, which is more frequently used than desert of the region of the Exodus, more nearly approaches the meaning of the Hebrew, though not quite expressing it. When we speak of the desert our thoughts are naturally borne to such places as the Sahara, a great sandy waste, incapable of vegetation, impossible as a dwelling-place for men, and where no human being is found except when hurrying through as quickly as he can. No such ideas are attached to the Hebrew words for desert. Four words are chiefly used in Hebrew to express the idea:(1) MidbarThe more general word. It is from the root dabar, "to lead" (cattle to pasture) [cf. German Trift from treiben]. Hence midbar among its other meanings has that of tracts of pasturage for flocks. So Joel, ii, 22: "The beautiful places of the wilderness are sprung", or literally: "The pastures of the wilderness shoot forth". So, too, the desert was not necessarily uninhabited. Thus (Isaiah 42:11) we read: "Let the desert (midbar) and the cities thereof be exalted: Cedar shall dwell in houses", or rather, "the villages that Cedar doth inhabit". Not that there were towns in the desert occupied by a stable population. The inhabitants were mostly nomads. For the desert was not a place regularly cultivated like the fields and gardens of ordinary civilized districts. Rather, it was a region in which was to be found pasturage, not rich, but sufficient for sheep and goats, and more abundant after the rainy season. The desert, too, was looked upon as the abode of wild beasts — lions (Ecclus., xiii, 23), wild asses (Job 24:5), jackals (Malachi 1:3), etc. It was not fertilized by streams of water, but springs were to be found there (Genesis 16:7), and in places cisterns to collect the rainfall. Midbar is the word generally used in the Pentateuch for the desert of the Exodus; but of the regions of the Exodus various districts are distinguished as the desert of Sin (Exodus 16:1), the desert of Sinai (Exodus 19:1), the desert of Sur (Exodus 15:22), the desert of Sin (zin) (Numbers 13:22), etc. Moreover, it is used of other districts, as in Western Palestine of the wilderness of Juda (Judges 1:16), and again in the east of the desert of Moab (Deuteronomy 2:8).(2) `Arabah`Arabah, derived from the root ’arab, "to be arid", is another word for desert, which seems to express more than one of its natural characteristics. The word means a steppe, a desert plain; and it conveys the idea of a stretch of country, arid, unproductive, and desolate. In poetic passages it is used in parallelism with the word midbar. Thus Is., xxxv, 1: "The land that was desolate [midbar] and impassable shall be glad, and the wilderness [’arabah] shall rejoice"; cf. also Jer., xvii, 6, etc. Although the Septuagint frequently renders the word by eremos, it often uses other translations, as ge dipsosa and elos. The Vulgate employs the words solitudo, desertum. Very frequently the word ’arabah has a mere geographical sense. Thus it refers to the strange depression extending from the base of Mount Hermon, through the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, to the Gulf of Akabah. So, too, there are the Arboth Moab (Numbers 22:1), the Arboth Jericho (Joshua 4:13), etc., referring to the desolate districts connected with these places.(3) HorbahHorbah, derived from the root harab, "to lie waste", is translated in the Septuagint by the words eremos, eremosis, eremia. In the Vulgate are found the renderings ruinœ, solitudo, desolatio. A strange translation occurs in Ps. ci, 7. The word in the Greek is oikopedon and in the Vulgate domicilium; and the passage in which the word occurs is rendered in the Douay version: "I am like a night raven in the house". St. Jerome, however, in his translation of the Psalm direct from the Hebrew employs the word solitudinum, which seems more correct: "I am like a night raven of the wastes". The lexicon of Gesenius gives as the first meaning of horbah, "dryness"; then as a second meaning, "a desolation", "ruins". A combination of these senses seems to have been the reason why in the poetical books the word is used of the wilderness. The word conveys the idea of ruin or desolation caused by hostile lands, as when God says to Jerusalem (Es., v, 14): "I will make thee desolate"; or when the Psalmist, referring to the punishment inflicted by Jehovah, says (Psalm 9:7): "The enemy are consumed, left desolate for ever".(4) JeshimonJeshimon, derived from jasham, "to be desolate". It was looked upon as a place without water, thus Is., xliii, 19: "Behold I shall set up streams in the desert [jeshimon]". It was a waste, a wilderness. In poetical passages it is used as a parallel to midbar, cf. Deut., xxxii, 10; Ps., lxxviii, 40 (Heb.): "How often did ye provoke him in the wilderness [midbar], and grieve him in the desert [jeshimon]?" Frequently it is used of the wilderness of the Exodus. Besides such uses of the word, it seems when used with the article often to have assumed the force of a proper name. In such cases it refers at times to the wilderness of the Exodus (cf. Psalm 78:40; 106:14 — Heb.; etc.). Parts of the waste region about the Dead Sea are called the jeshimon; and to the north-east of the same sea there is a place called Beth-Jeshimoth (cf. Numbers 33:49), where the Israelites are said to have encamped at the end of the wanderings. These are the principal words used for desert in the Bible. There are, however, others less frequently used, only one or two of which can be mentioned here: such as tohu, used in Gen., i, 2: "the earth was void". In Deut., xxxii, 10, it is used in parallelism with midbar, and in Ps. cvii, 40 it refers to the desert directly. Such also is çiyyah, which means, literally, dryness, but refers at times to the desert: so, ’areç çiyyah, "a land of drought", or "a desert" (Hosea 2:5).Biblical desertsA word may be said here concerning the chief deserts referred to in the Bible. Perhaps the most interesting is that of Exodus. In the Pentateuch this tract is treated as a whole as "the desert", but, as a rule, special parts of it are referred to, as the desert of Sin, the desert of Sinai, the desert of Cades, the desert of Pharan, etc. Books have been written to discuss the geography of this region. Suffice it to say that it comprises the ground over which the Israelites travelled from their crossing of the Red Sea till their arrival in the Promised Land. We do not enter into the question raised by modern critics as to whether the geography of the Exodus had different meanings in different parts of the Pentateuch. The desert of Juda, too, plays an important part in the Bible. It lies to the west of the ’arabah, the Jordan, and the Dead Sea. To it belong the deserts of Engaddi, that of Thecua, and that of Jericho, near the city of the same name. To the east of Palestine are the deserts of Arabia, Moab, and the desert of Idumea, near the Dead Sea. We are told (Exodus 3:1) that Moses fed the flocks of Jethro, and led them to the interior parts of the desert. This desert was in the land of Madian, close to the Red Sea, and in it was Mount Horeb, which St. Jerome says was the same as Sinai. The desert to which David fled from Saul (cf. 1 Samuel 23:14) was the desert of Ziph, which lies south of the Dead Sea and Hebron. John the Baptist lived and taught in the desert of Judea, west of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, near Jericho. Finally, the scene of Christ’s temptation (Matthew 4:1-11), of which St. Mark adds (i, 13): "He was with wild beasts", was most likely in the ’arabah to the west of the Jordan. But this is only speculation.-----------------------------------SMITH, Historical Geography of the Holy Land (London, 1897); CHEYNE, Encyclopedia Biblica (London, 1899); HASTINGS. Dict. of the Bible; VIGOUROUX, Dict. de la Bible.J.A. HOWLETT Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IVCopyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York

dez´ẽrt מדבּר, midhbār, חרבּה, ḥorbāh, ישׁמון, y^eshı̄mōn, ערבה, ‛ărābhāh, ציּה, cı̄yāh, תּהוּ, tōhū; ἔρημος, érēmos, ἐρημία, erēmı́a): Midhbār, the commonest word for “desert,” more often rendered “wilderness,” is perhaps from the root dābhar, in the sense of “to drive,” i.e. a place for driving or pasturing flocks. Y^eshı̄mōn is from yāsham, “to be empty”, ḥorbāh (compare Arabic kharib, “to lie waste”; khirbah, “a ruin”; kharāb, “devastation”), from ḥārabh “to be dry”; compare also ‛ārabh, “to be dry,” and ‛ărābhāh, “a desert” or “the Arabah” (see CHAMPAIGN). For ’erec cı̄yāh (Psa 63:1; Isa 41:18), “a dry land,” compare cı̄yı̄m, “wild beasts of the desert” (Isa 13:21, etc.). Ṭōhū, variously rendered “without form” (Gen 1:2 the King James Version), “empty space,” the King James Version “empty place” (Job 26:7), “waste,” the King James Version “nothing” (Job 6:18), “confusion,” the Revised Version, margin, “wasteness” (Isa 24:10 the English Revised Version), may be compared with Arabic tāh, “to go astray” at-Tih, “the desert of the wandering.” In the New Testament we find erēmos and erēmiǎ: “The child (John) ... was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel” (Luk 1:80); “Our fathers did eat manna in the desert” (Joh 6:31 the King James Version).

The desert as known to the Israelites was not a waste of sand, as those are apt to imagine who have in mind the pictures of the Sahara. Great expanses of sand, it is true, are found in Arabia, but the nearest one, an-Nufūd, was several days’ journey distant from the farthest southeast reached by the Israelites in their wanderings. Most of the desert of Sinai and of Palestine is land that needs only water to make it fruitful. east of the Jordan, the line between “the desert” and “the sown” lies about along the line of the Ḥijāz railway. To the West there is barely enough water to support the crops of wheat; to the East there is too little. Near the line of demarcation, the yield of wheat depends strictly upon the rainfall. A few inches more or less of rain in the year determines whether the grain can reach maturity or not. The latent fertility of the desert lands is demonstrated by the season of scant rains, when they become carpeted with herbage and flowers. It is marvelous, too, how the camels, sheep and goats, even in the dry season, will find something to crop where the traveler sees nothing but absolute barrenness. The long wandering of the Israelites in “the desert” was made possible by the existence of food for their flocks and herds. Compare Psa 65:11, Psa 65:12:

“Thou crownest the year with thy goodness;

And thy paths drop fatness.

They drop upon the pastures of the Wilderness.

And the hills are girded with joy”;

and also Joe 2:22: “The pastures of the wilderness do spring.”

“The desert” or “the wilderness” (ha-midhbār) usually signifies the desert of the wandering, or the northern part of the Sinaitic Peninsula. Compare Exo 3:1 King James Version: “MOSES ... led the flock (of Jethro) to the backside of the desert”; Exo 5:3 King James Version: “Let us go ... Three days’ journey into the desert”; Exo 19:2 King James Version: “They ... were come to the desert of Sinai”; Exo 23:31 King James Version: “I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river” (Euphrates). Other uncultivated or pasture regions are known as Wilderness of Beersheba (Gen 21:14), West of Judah (Jdg 1:16), West of En-gedi (1Sa 24:1), West of Gibeon (2Sa 2:24), West of Maon (1Sa 23:24), West of Damascus; compare Arabic Bādiyet-ush-Shām (1Ki 19:15), etc. Midhbar yām, “the wilderness of the sea” (Isa 21:1), may perhaps be that part of Arabia bordering upon the Persian Gulf.

Aside from the towns and fields, practically all the land was midhbār or “desert,” for this term included mountain, plain and valley. The terms, “desert of En-gedi,” “desert of Maon,” etc., do not indicate circumscribed areas, but are applied in a general way to the lands about these places. To obtain water, the shepherds with their flocks traverse long distances to the wells, springs or streams, usually arranging to reach the water about the middle of the day and rest about it for an hour or so, taking shelter from the sun in the shadows of the rocks, perhaps under some overhanging ledge.

Isa 35:1 (c) This is typical of the marvelous change in a dry, barren human heart when CHRIST comes in to dwell and the living water flows freely.

Isa 43:19 (c) The blessing of GOD will remove all barrenness and relieve all drought when once He is admitted to rule and reign in the heart.

Jer 17:6 (c) A type of the surroundings in which one gets no blessing for his soul, no food for his heart, no light for his mind - a religious desert.