מִדְבָּר

From the study of Hosea 2:14

Range of meaning

Uncultivated land: steppe, pasture, open country with few people, up to true desert. It is not always sand. It is land outside the farmed, settled area, used for grazing flocks.

Against the English

"Wilderness" is accurate. "Desert" (NLT) suggests empty dunes and loses the Exodus overtones that "wilderness" carries for Bible readers.

Used elsewhere in the period

The setting of Israel's forty years after Egypt (Deut 8:2, 15). Jer 2:2 is a close parallel in thought: "I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness." In Hos 2:3 the wilderness is a threat ("I will make her like a wilderness"). In Hos 13:5 it is where "I knew you."

From the study of Isaiah 40:3

Range of meaning

Uncultivated land beyond the villages: grazing steppe, semi-desert, desert proper. It also carries Israel's memory of the forty years of wandering, where God led and fed them.

Against the English

"Wilderness" can suggest forest or untouched nature to an English reader. To Israel it meant dry, hard, dangerous country. It also recalled the Exodus route.

How it drifted

In English idiom, "a voice in the wilderness" means someone nobody listens to. That picture comes from the Gospel form of the quotation and later proverbial use, not from the Hebrew syntax.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Exodus wilderness tradition (Exod 13–17; Deut 8). Isaiah 43:19–20 has "a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert". The Dead Sea Scrolls community quoted this verse in its Rule (1QS 8:13–14; 9:19–20) to justify withdrawing "into the wilderness to prepare the way", which shows that Jews of Jesus' day read "in the wilderness" with the command.

From the study of Proverbs 21:19

Range of meaning

Unsettled land beyond towns and farms: dry steppe used for seasonal grazing, rocky wasteland, desert. It is marked by scarce water, few people, danger from animals and raiders, and distance from kin.

Against the English

'Desert' (BSB, NIV, WEB) suggests sand dunes to many modern readers. 'Wilderness' (KJV, YLT) is closer. The Hebrew picture is of empty, harsh land outside society, not necessarily sand.

How it drifted

Modern 'desert' imagery, such as Saharan dunes, is narrower than the Israelite midbār, which included scrubland where flocks grazed.

Used elsewhere in the period

Israel's forty years in the midbār (Num 14:33). Hagar and Elijah flee into it (Gen 21:14; 1 Kgs 19:4). David hides from Saul in it (1 Sam 23:14). It is a place of hunger, thirst and exposure (Deut 8:15). The Septuagint has 'in a desert land' (en gē erēmō).