Meaning of “Wilderness”

1. Wilderness — (1.) Heb. midhbar, denoting not a barren desert but a district or region suitable for pasturing sheep and cattle (Ps. 65:12; Isa. 42:11; Jer. 23:10; Joel 1:19; 2:22); an uncultivated place. This word is used of the wilderness of Beersheba (Gen. 21:14), on the southern border of Palestine; the wilderness of the Red Sea (Ex. 13:18); of Shur (15:22), a portion of the Sinaitic peninsula; of Sin (17:1), Sinai (Lev. 7:38), Moab (Deut. 2:8), Judah (Judg. 1:16), Ziph, Maon, En-gedi (1 Sam. 23:14, 24; 24:1), Jeruel and Tekoa (2 Chr. 20:16, 20), Kadesh (Ps. 29:8). "The wilderness of the sea" (Isa. 21:1). Principal Douglas, referring to this expression, says: "A mysterious name, which must be meant to describe Babylon (see especially ver. 9), perhaps because it became the place of discipline to God's people, as the wilderness of the Red Sea had been (comp. Ezek. 20:35). Otherwise it is in contrast with the symbolic title in Isa. 22:1. Jerusalem is the "valley of vision," rich in spiritual husbandry; whereas Babylon, the rival centre of influence, is spiritually barren and as restless as the sea (comp. 57:20)." A Short Analysis of the O.T. (2.) Jeshimon, a desert waste (Deut. 32:10; Ps. 68:7). (3.) 'Arabah, the name given to the valley from the Dead Sea to the eastern branch of the Red Sea. In Deut. 1:1; 2:8, it is rendered "plain" (R.V., "Arabah"). (4.) Tziyyah, a "dry place" (Ps. 78:17; 105:41). (5.) Tohu, a "desolate" place, a place "waste" or "unoccupied" (Deut. 32:10; Job 12:24; comp. Gen. 1:2, "without form"). The wilderness region in the Sinaitic peninsula through which for forty years the Hebrews wandered is generally styled "the wilderness of the wanderings." This entire region is in the form of a triangle, having its base toward the north and its apex toward the south. Its extent from north to south is about 250 miles, and at its widest point it is about 150 miles broad. Throughout this vast region of some 1,500 square miles there is not a single river. The northern part of this triangular peninsula is properly the "wilderness of the wanderings" (et-Tih). The western portion of it is called the "wilderness of Shur" (Ex. 15:22), and the eastern the "wilderness of Paran." The "wilderness of Judea" (Matt. 3:1) is a wild, barren region, lying between the Dead Sea and the Hebron Mountains. It is the "Jeshimon" mentioned in 1 Sam. 23:19.

2. Ephraim in the wilderness — (John 11: 54), a town to which our Lord retired with his disciples after he had raised Lazarus, and when the priests were conspiring against him. It lay in the wild, uncultivated hill-country to the north-east of Jerusalem, betwen the central towns and the Jordan valley.

3. Sin, Wilderness of — lying between Elim and sinai (Ex. 16:1; comp. Num. 33:11, 12). This was probably the narrow plain of el-Markha, which stretches along the eastern shore of the Red Sea for several miles toward the promontory of Ras Mohammed, the southern extremity of the Sinitic Peninsula. While the Israelites rested here for some days they began to murmur on account of the want of nourishment, as they had by this time consumed all the corn they had brought with them out of Egypt. God heard their murmurings, and gave them "manna" and then quails in abundance.

3 results from Easton's Bible Dictionary

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Wilderness

Bible Search for “Wilderness”

1. Genesis Chapter 14 Verse 6 — And the Horites in their mount Seir, unto Elparan, which is by the wilderness.

2. Genesis Chapter 16 Verse 7 — And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.

3. Genesis Chapter 21 Verse 21 — And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.

4. Genesis Chapter 21 Verse 20 — And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.

5. Genesis Chapter 21 Verse 14 — And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

6. Genesis Chapter 36 Verse 24 — And these are the children of Zibeon; both Ajah, and Anah: this was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father.

7. Genesis Chapter 37 Verse 22 — And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.

8. Exodus Chapter 3 Verse 18 — And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.

9. Exodus Chapter 4 Verse 27 — And the LORD said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him.

10. Exodus Chapter 5 Verse 1 — And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.

11. Exodus Chapter 7 Verse 16 — And thou shalt say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear.

12. Exodus Chapter 8 Verse 28 — And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away: entreat for me.

13. Exodus Chapter 8 Verse 27 — We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the LORD our God, as he shall command us.

14. Exodus Chapter 13 Verse 20 — And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness.

15. Exodus Chapter 13 Verse 18 — But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.

16. Exodus Chapter 14 Verse 12 — Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.

17. Exodus Chapter 14 Verse 11 — And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?

18. Exodus Chapter 14 Verse 3 — For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.

19. Exodus Chapter 15 Verse 22 — So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.

20. Exodus Chapter 16 Verse 32 — And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.

21. Exodus Chapter 16 Verse 14 — And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.

22. Exodus Chapter 16 Verse 10 — And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.

23. Exodus Chapter 16 Verse 3 — And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

24. Exodus Chapter 16 Verse 2 — And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:

25. Exodus Chapter 16 Verse 1 — And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

26. Exodus Chapter 17 Verse 1 — And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.

27. Exodus Chapter 18 Verse 5 — And Jethro, Moses' father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God:

28. Exodus Chapter 19 Verse 2 — For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.

29. Exodus Chapter 19 Verse 1 — In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.

30. Leviticus Chapter 7 Verse 38 — Which the LORD commanded Moses in mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai.

31. Leviticus Chapter 16 Verse 22 — And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

32. Leviticus Chapter 16 Verse 21 — And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:

33. Leviticus Chapter 16 Verse 10 — But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.

34. Numbers Chapter 1 Verse 19 — As the LORD commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.

35. Numbers Chapter 1 Verse 1 — And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,

36. Numbers Chapter 3 Verse 14 — And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying,

37. Numbers Chapter 3 Verse 4 — And Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD, when they offered strange fire before the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children: and Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest's office in the sight of Aaron their father.

38. Numbers Chapter 9 Verse 5 — And they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.

39. Numbers Chapter 9 Verse 1 — And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,

40. Numbers Chapter 10 Verse 31 — And he said, Leave us not, I pray thee; forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes.

41. Numbers Chapter 10 Verse 12 — And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.

42. Numbers Chapter 12 Verse 16 — And afterward the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of Paran.

43. Numbers Chapter 13 Verse 26 — And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.

44. Numbers Chapter 13 Verse 21 — So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath.

45. Numbers Chapter 13 Verse 3 — And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.

46. Numbers Chapter 14 Verse 32 — But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness.

47. Numbers Chapter 14 Verse 29 — Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me.

48. Numbers Chapter 14 Verse 25 — (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.

49. Numbers Chapter 14 Verse 22 — Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

50. Numbers Chapter 14 Verse 16 — Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.

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