Desert (in the Bible)

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The Hebrew words translated in theDouay Version of theBible by "desert" or "wilderness", and usually rendered by theVulgatedesertum, "solitude", or occasionallyeremus, have not the same shade of meaning as the English word desert. The wordwilderness, which is more frequently used thandesert 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 suchideas are attached to the Hebrew words for desert. Four words are chiefly used in Hebrew to express theidea:

Midbar

The more general word. It is from the rootdabar, "to lead" (cattle to pasture) [cf. GermanTrift fromtreiben]. Hencemidbar among its other meanings has that of tracts of pasturage for flocks. SoJoel 2:22: "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 thatCedar 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 (Sirach 13:23), 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 thePentateuch 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 ofMoab (Deuteronomy 2:8).

'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 theidea of a stretch of country, arid, unproductive, and desolate. In poetic passages it is used in parallelism with the wordmidbar. ThusIsaiah 35:1: "The land that was desolate [midbar] and impassable shall be glad, and the wilderness ['arabah] shall rejoice"; cf. alsoJeremiah 17:6, etc. Although theSeptuagint frequently renders the word byeremos, it often uses other translations, asge dipsosa andelos. TheVulgate employs the wordssolitudo,desertum. Very frequently the word'arabah has a mere geographical sense. Thus it refers to the strange depression extending from the base ofMount Hermon, through theJordan Valley and the Dead Sea, to the Gulf of Akabah. So, too, there are the ArbothMoab (Numbers 22:1), the ArbothJericho (Joshua 4:13), etc., referring to the desolate districts connected with these places.

Horbah

Horbah, derived from the rootharab, "to lie waste", is translated in theSeptuagint by the wordseremos, eremosis, eremia. In theVulgate are found the renderingsruinœ, solitudo, desolatio. A strange translation occurs inPsalm 101:7. The word in the Greek isoikopedon and in theVulgatedomicilium; and the passage in which the word occurs is rendered in theDouay version: "I am like a night ravenin the house".St. Jerome, however, in his translation of the Psalm direct from the Hebrew employs the wordsolitudinum, which seems more correct: "I am like a night raven of the wastes". The lexicon of Gesenius gives as the first meaning ofhorbah, "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 theidea of ruin or desolation caused by hostile lands, as whenGod says to Jerusalem (Es., v, 14): "I willmake theedesolate"; or when the Psalmist, referring to the punishment inflicted byJehovah, says (Psalm 9:7): "The enemy are consumed,left desolate for ever".

Jeshimon

Jeshimon, derived fromjasham, "to be desolate". It was looked upon as a place without water, thusIsaiah 43:19: "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 tomidbar, cf.Deuteronomy 32:10;Psalm 78:40: "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; etc.). Parts of the waste region about the Dead Sea are called thejeshimon; and to the north-east of the same sea there is a place calledBeth-Jeshimoth (cf.Numbers 33:49), where theIsraelites are said to have encamped at the end of the wanderings. These are the principal words used for desert in theBible. There are, however, others less frequently used, only one or two of which can be mentioned here: such astohu, used inGenesis 1:2: "the earthwas void". InDeuteronomy 32:10, it is used in parallelism withmidbar, and inPsalm 107:40 it refers to the desert directly. Such also isçiyyah, 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 deserts

A word may be said here concerning the chief deserts referred to in theBible. Perhaps the most interesting is that of Exodus. In thePentateuch 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 theIsraelites travelled from their crossing of theRed 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 thePentateuch. The desert of Juda, too, plays an important part in theBible. It lies to the west of the'arabah, theJordan, and the Dead Sea. To it belong the deserts of Engaddi, that of Thecua, and that ofJericho, 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 ofMadian, close to theRed Sea, and in it wasMount Horeb, whichSt. Jerome says was the same as Sinai. The desert to whichDavid fled from Saul (cf.1 Samuel 23:14) was the desert of Ziph, which lies south of the Dead Sea andHebron.John the Baptist lived and taught in the desert ofJudea, west of theJordan and the Dead Sea, nearJericho. Finally, the scene ofChrist's temptation (Matthew 4:1-11), of which St. Mark adds (1:13): "He was with wild beasts", was most likely in the'arabah to the west of theJordan. But this is only speculation.

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