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Bible Encyclopedias
Desert
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (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" (Genesis 14:6, etc.), though in some places "desert" (Exodus 3:1; Exodus 5:1, etc.), and in Psalms 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 Joel 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 (Genesis 21:14; Genesis 21:21; Exodus 4:27; Exodus 19:2; Joshua 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 (Exodus 10:26; Exodus 12:38); they had them at Hazeroth, the middle point of the wanderings (Numbers 11:22), and some of the tribes possessed them in large numbers immediately before the transit of the Jordan (Numbers 32:1). In speaking of the Wilderness of the Wanderings the word "desert" occurs as the rendering of Midbar, in Exodus 3:1; Exodus 5:3; Exodus 19:2; Numbers 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" (1 Kings 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 (Psalms 65:13; Joel 1:19; compare Luke 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 (1 Samuel 17:28; 1 Samuel 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 (Isaiah 35:1; Isaiah 1, 2; Jeremiah 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 (Matthew 3:3; Matthew 15:33; Luke 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 Deuteronomy 32:10; Job 24:5; Isaiah 21:1; Jeremiah 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 Isaiah 35:1; Isaiah 35:6; xl, 3; 41:19; 2:3; Jeremiah 2:6; Jeremiah 17:6; Jeremiah 1, 12; Ezekiel 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" (Deuteronomy 1:1; Deuteronomy 2:8). "As extending to the lake of Tiberias" (Joshua 12:3; 2 Samuel 4:7; 2 Kings 25:4). "Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea" (Joshua 3:16; Joshua 12:3; Deuteronomy 4:49). "The arboth (plains) of Jericho" (Joshua 5:10; 2 Kings 25:5). "Plains (arboth) of Moab," i.e. opposite Jericho, probably pastured by the Moabites, though not within their proper territory (Deuteronomy 24:1; Deuteronomy 24:8; Numbers 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 Isaiah 40:3. It is thus used, however, only in poetry, and is equivalent to Midbar, to which it is the poetic parallel in Isaiah 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 (Deuteronomy 1:7; Deuteronomy 3:17; Joshua 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, Numbers 22:1, etc.); "the plains of Jericho" (Joshua 4:13); "the plains of the wilderness" (2 Samuel 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 Ezekiel 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 Isaiah 35:1; Isaiah 35:6; Isaiah 40:3; Isaiah 41:19; Isaiah 51:3; Jeremiah 2:6; Jeremiah 5:6; Jeremiah 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," Deuteronomy 32:10; Psalms 48:7; "solitary," Psalms 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 Numbers 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:" Psalms 78:40; Psalms 106:14; Isaiah 43:19-20. This term expresses a greater extent of uncultivated country than the others (1 Samuel 23:19; 1 Samuel 23:24; Isaiah 43:19-20). It is especially applied to that desert of peninsular Arabia in which the Israelites sojourned under Moses (Numbers 21:20; Numbers 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 Exodus 23:31; Deuteronomy 11:24. To this latter the term is equally applicable in the following poetical passages: Deuteronomy 32:10; Psalms 68:7; Psalms 78:40; Psalms 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 1 Samuel 23:19; 1 Samuel 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 (Isaiah 48:21), and hence desolation (Psalms 9:6), or concretely desolate (Leviticus 26:31; Leviticus 26:33; Isaiah 49:14; Isaiah 64:10; Jeremiah 7:34; Jeremiah 22:5; Jeremiah 25:9; Jeremiah 25:11; Jeremiah 25:18; Jeremiah 27:12; Jeremiah 44:2; Jeremiah 44:6; Jeremiah 44:22; Ezekiel 5:14; Ezekiel 25:13; Ezekiel 29:9-10; Ezekiel 25:4; Ezekiel 28:8), or ruins (Ezekiel 36:10; Ezekiel 36:33; Ezekiel 38:12; Malachi 1:4; Isaiah 58:12; Isaiah 61:4). It is generally applied to what has been rendered desolate by man or neglect (Ezra 9:9; Psalms 109:10; Isaiah 44:26; Isaiah 51:3; Isaiah 52:9; Jeremiah 49:13; Ezekiel 26:20; Ezekiel 23:24; Ezekiel 23:27; Ezekiel 36:4; Daniel 9:2). It is employed in Job 3:14, to denote buildings that speedily fall to ruin (comp. Isaiah 5:17, the ruined houses of the rich). The only passage where it expresses a natural waste or "wilderness" is Isaiah 48:21, where it refers to that of Sinai. It does not occur in any historical passage, and is rendered "desert" only in Psalms 102:6; Isaiah 48:21; Ezekiel 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 (Numbers 33:8; Exodus 13:17; Exodus 15:22);
(2.) the Desert of Paran (Numbers 10:12; Numbers 13:3);
(3.) the Desert of Sinai (Exodus 19);
(4.) the Desert of Sin (Exodus 16:6);
(5.) the Desert of Zin (Numbers 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; Luke 1:80);
(7.) the Desert of Ziph (1 Samuel 23:14-15);
(8.) the Desert of Engedi (Joshua 15:62);
(9.) the Desert of Carmel (Joshua 15:55);
(10.) the Desert of Maon (1 Samuel 23:24);
(11.) the Desert of Tekoa (2 Chronicles 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 (Jeremiah 52:8);
(13.) the Desert of Beth-Aven seems to be a part of Mount Ephraim (Joshua 18:12);
(14.) the Desert of Damascus (1 Kings 19:15) is the same as the Desert Syria, where Tadmor was built (1 Kings 9:18).
6. "Desert" or "wilderness" is also the symbol in Scripture of temptation, solitude, and persecution (Isaiah 27:10; Isaiah 33:9). The figure is sometimes emblematical of spiritual things, as in Isaiah 41:19; also in Isaiah 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 (Isaiah 40:3); it is also spoken of with reference to the conversion of the Gentiles (Isaiah 35:1). The solitude of the desert is a subject often noticed (Job 38:26; Jeremiah 9:2). The desert was considered the abode of evil spirits. or at least their occasional resort (Matthew 12:43; Luke 11:24), an opinion held also by the heathen (Virg. AEn. 6:27).
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Desert'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/d/desert.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
