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DESERT
(1.) Heb. midbar, "pasture-ground;" an open tract for pasturage; a common (Joel 2:22). The "backside of the desert" (Exo 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, Gen. 21: 21; Exo 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. (2.) The translation of the Hebrew _Aribah'_, "an arid tract" (Isa. 35:1, Isa. 35: 6;40:3;41:19;51:3, 51: 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, Deut. 34: 8), "the plains of the wilderness" (2-Sam 17:16). (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 Psa 78:40;106:14; Isa. 43:19, Isa. 43: 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 Exo 23:31; Deut. 11:24. (See JESHIMON.) (4.) A dry place; hence a desolation (Psa 9:6), desolate (Lev. 26:34); the rendering of the Hebrew word _horbah'_. It is rendered "desert" only in Psa 102:6, Psa 102: Isa. 48:21, Isa. 48: and Ezek. 13:4, Ezek. 13: where it means the wilderness of Sinai. (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, 32: _midbar_). It is a symbol of temptation, solitude, and persecution (Isa. 27:10, Isa. 27: _midbar_;33:9, 33: _arabah_).
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