Midbdr is used figuratively in Hob 2* ('lest I
918 WILDERNESS OK DESEKT
WILL, WOULD
make her [Israel] as a wilderness' || 'a dryland' n;!i p,N), and Jer 2" (' Have I [Jahweli] been a wilderness to Israel ? ').
2. njTi' '0.rahdh (prob. from a root meaning to he arid ; L^X often Ipvi^oi, but also such renderings as ayp6s, l\o!, -pj Si^wffo) stands for a tract of country whose soil is bare, desolate, unfertile. Its nearest equivalent is 'steppe' or 'desert-plain.' Apart from its application to the 'Arabali, the great depression which includes the Jordan Valley, and extends southwards to the Gulf of 'Akal)ali (see art. Arabah, and Plain in vol. iii. p. 893'), the term 'ctnibah is applied to steppes in general. Its renderings in E v are as follows : Job 24° (II iz-c) 39* (II nrh'^ ' salt land '), AV and RV ' wilder- ness''; Is 339, Jer 51" (in latter || .tx p.x) AV ' wilderness,' RV ' desert ' ; Am 6" AV ' wilder- ness,' RV ' Arabah ' ; Is 35' (II i?-].? and n;s) 40^ 411" (in both I1 12-)^) 5P (II M?-]n and i^p), Jer 2« (|| n^np and .TV n¥) 1"'^ (II ">?■;? and nn^o ]~\h) 50^ (|| ^;•!!? and n;¥) AV and RV 'desert.' In the plur. 'arbOth the word is used of the ' plains ' (AV and RV; better 'steppes' or 'desert-plains') of Moab (Nu 22' 263.^ 3113 3318. 49. M 351 36i3_ Dt 34') and of Jericho (Jos 4'» S'o, 2 K 25" [Jer 39» 528]). gee art. Plain, I.e.
3. njin (in plur. nin-m), from a root meaning to he waste or desolate, is 3 times tr'' ' desert(s) ' in AV: Ps 102'' (II n3iD ; LXX olKiireSov ; RV ' waste places '), Is 4S-' (so also RV; LXX ?pwos), Ezk 13^ (RV 'waste places'; LXX lpri/j.oi). Elsewhere EV oflers such renderings as ' waste(s),' ' desolation(s),' ' waste places,' ' desolate places ' : Lv 26^'- ^, Ezr 9', Is 5" 44'« 49" 5P 52^ 5S'« 61^ 64", Jer 7" 22° 25^- "■ '« 27" 44-- «• -- 49'^ Ezk 5'« 25" 26=" 29''- "> 33^- " 35^ 364. 10. 33 388_ Dn gs^ m^I i4, p., 96 log'", Job 3'<. The proper application of this Heb. term is to cities or districts vnce inhabited, but now lying waste (cf. th ■ use of n-s* 'devastation' and its cognates in Is 1' 5" 6", Jer 42"*, Ezk 35'), although it is once (Is 48-') used of the Wilderness of the Wanderings. Its nearest Eng. equivalents are 'waste(s)' and 'ruin(s).'
4. i^D'!?;. — See Jeshimon. 5. n;v ziyijdh is twice tr'' ' wilderness' in AV: Job 30^ (RV ' drv ground ' ; LXX a^fSpos), Ps 78" (RV 'desert,' R'^m 'a dry land ' ; LXX ivvbpos ; here used of the Wilderness of the Wanderings). Its proper meaning is 'dry giound ' (cf. n'XXl^ of Ps 63" t", |vj of Is 25» 32-, and 3-17 [AV ' parched ground,' RV ' glowin" sand,' RVm ' mirage '] of Is 35'). In Is 13=' 34'*, Jer 50^, Ps 74", O':? is used of wild beasts of the desert ; in Is 23'^ [unless we emend, with 01s., to d"v, or take the word, with Marti, to mean ' seamen '] and Ps 72* [but prob. read, with 01s., Duhm, et al., mj(] of human inhabitants of these arid tracts.
6. tnn tOhH occurs in the collocation pD'ei; V7\ 5."ih| (LXX ir 5i\fi€i KavfiaTos, i\> 75 kviopif), lit. 'in the waste of the howling of a desert ' = ' in the howling (adj.) waste of a desert' [on the construction see Driver, ad loc.'\, Dt 32'°, where it refers to the Wilderness of the Wanderings. It is tr'' ' wilder- ness' by AV and RV in Job 12=^ and by AV (RV 'waste'*) in Ps 107'"' (LXX ^i- a^i.Tif). The special sense of this word is that of a ^^'ild desolate e.xpanse (Job 6" ' they [the caravans] go up into the waste and perish '). It is the term applied to the chaotic confusion that preceded the creation (Gn 1- ; cf. Jer 4^, where the prophet beholds the earth re- turned to the primeval lohili, wCibohH ; and contrast Is 45'* ' He created it not a waste ' [but perhaps here the word ='in vain,' RVm]).
7. The NT terms are iprnila and Iprtiw^ (the latter used either as adj. with rin-ot or the like, or alone, in the fern., with x'^P" understood). As a rule AV tr. the sulistantives by ' wilderness' and the adjec- tive by 'desert.' Rv changes 'desert' of AV into 'wilderness' in Mt 24-^ and Jn 6"' as tr. of Iprjfioi.
Conversely, it changes 'wilderness' of Lk 5" 8^ into ' deserts' as tr. of al Ipri/xoi, and into ' a desert place' in Mt 15^ and Mk 8* as tr. of ^p^pda. It also reads ' a desert place ' for ' a solitary place ' in Mk 1'° as tr. of Iprjpios tojtos.
The wilderness of JuDJEX witnessed the com- mencement of John the Baptist's ministry (Mt 3' 11). An unnamed wilderness, probably the Quar- nntania of tradition, was the scene of our Lord's temptation (Mt 4' ||). The words of Ac 8'^ ' Arise and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza : the same is desert' (aCri; iarli' Ipyjtios), have occasioned a good deal of difficulty. If avTjj could lie taken as re- ferring to 606s, the statement might be justified, for the road that is [jrobaldy in view actually passes through the desert (so Robinson, BJiP- ii. 514). But it is more natural to refer aOrri to Gaza, and this city was, in Philip's time, quite a flourishing one. G. A. Smith (HGHL 187) seeks to evade this difficulty l>y supposing the allusion to be to Old Gaza, by which the road ran, and to which the title fpTj^ot may have clung, even if it were not actually deserted. Upon the whole, however, it appears preferable to regard the words ' the same is desert ' as a late marginal gloss which has found its way into the text.