Desert

VIEW:47 DATA:01-04-2020

DESERT.—See Wilderness.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

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.).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

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.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

dez?ẽrt מדבּר, midhbār, חרבּה, ḥorbāh, ישׁמון, yeshı̄mōn, 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. Yeshı̄mōn 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.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

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.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.

Desert
(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).

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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