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# מִדְבָּר

Biblical Hebrew · Strong's H4057

**wilderness** — used 270 times in the Hebrew Bible. Below: its meanings with their sources, MACULA's glosses, and 2 verses word for word and in JPS 1917.

## Meaning

### OpenScriptures lexical index

wilderness [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1502/4057/#m1)

### Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906

מִדְבָּר²: n.m. wilderness [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1502/4057/#m2)

**The whole BDB entry:** n.m. wilderness—Dt 32:10 +; c. ה loc. מִדְבָּ֫רָה Jos 18:12 + 15 times; cstr. Ex 15:22 +; מִדְבַּ֫רָה 1 K 19:15; sf. מִדְבָּרָהּ Is 51:3;— tracts of land, used for the pasturage of flocks and herds, דָּֽשְׁאוּ נְאוֹת מִדְבָּר the pastures of the wilderness put forth green grass Jo 2:22; יִרְעֲפוּ נ׳ מ׳ the pastures of the wilderness drop (fertility) ψ 65:13; יָֽבְשׁוּ נ׳ מ׳ are dried up Je 23:10, cf. Je 9:9 Jo 1:19, 20. uninhabited land, מִדְבָּר לֹא־אָדָם בּוֹ wilderness in which is no man Jb 38:26; the abode of pelicans ψ 102:7; wild asses Jb 24:5 Je 2:24; jackals Mal 1:3; ostriches Lam 4:3; מִי־יִתְּנֵנִי בַמִּדְבָּר מְלוֹן אֹרְחִים וְאֶֽעֶזְבָה אֶת־עַמִּי O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfarers, that I might leave my people Je 9:1; טוֹב שֶׁבֶת בְּאֶרֶץ מִדְבָּר better to dwell in a desert land, than with a contentious woman Pr 21:19; בְּאֶרֶץ מִדְבָּר וּבְתֹהוּ יְלֵל יְשִׁמֹן in a desert land, and in a waste howling wilderness Dt 32:10. large tracts of such land bearing various names, in certain districts of which there might be towns and cities: יִשְׂאוּ מִדְבָּר וְעָרָיו חֲצֵרִים תֵּשֵׁב קֵדָר let the wilderness and its cities lift up (their voice), the villages that Kedar doth inhabit Is 42:11. There were six cities in the wilderness of Judah Jos 15:61, 62; הַמִּדְבָּר usually = wilderness of the wanderings Gn 14:6 Nu 14:16, 29, 32, 33(×2) +, or the great Arabian desert Ju 11:22 +; but may also refer to any other Ct 3:6; 8:5. Special tracts—(a) of the wilderness of the wanderings were מ׳ שׁוּר Ex 15:22, סין Ex 16:1 +, סיני Ex 19:1 +, פארן Nu 13:26 +, צן Nu 20:1 +, קדשׁ ψ 29:8, אתם Nu 33:8; (b) in W. Pal. מ׳ יהודה Ju 1:16 ψ 63:1 cf. Jos 15:61, מעוֹן 1 S 23:24, 25, זיף 1 S 23:15; 26:2, באר שׁבע Gn 21:14, עין גדי 1 S 24:2, תקוע 2 Ch 20:20, ירואל 2 Ch 20:16, גבעון 2 S 2:24; (c) in East. Palestine מואב Dt 2:8, אדום 2 K 3:8, קדמות Dt 2:26. fig. וְשַׂמְתִּיהָ כַמִּדְבָּר וְשַׁתִּהָ כְּאֶרֶץ צִיָּה and (lest I) make her as a wilderness and set her like a dry land Ho 2:5; הֲמִדְבָּר הָיִיתִי לְיִשְׂרָאֵל have I been a wilderness to Israel? Je 2:31.

Why these entries: BDB: headword, part of speech agrees, 51 of its verses cited, 1 words shared with the glosses, lists its Strong's number (3 candidates); OSHB: headword, part of speech agrees, 1 words shared with the BDB entry, 1 with the glosses (2 candidates)

## Glosses

MACULA's English glosses of the word in the text, with how often each is used: wilderness (160); the wilderness (64); the (12).

## In the verses

[Psalms 65:13](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.65.13/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.65.13/#tree)

יִ֭רְעֲפוּ נְא֣וֹת מִדְבָּ֑ר וְ֝גִ֗יל גְּבָע֥וֹת תַּחְגֹּֽרְנָה׃

*Word for word:* they.drip \[the\].pastures of.\[the\].wilderness and rejoicing \[the\].hills they.gird.on

*JPS 1917:* The pastures of the wilderness do drop; and the hills are girded with joy.

[Psalms 29:8](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.29.8/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.29.8/#tree)

ק֣וֹל יְ֭הוָה יָחִ֣יל מִדְבָּ֑ר יָחִ֥יל יְ֝הוָ֗ה מִדְבַּ֥ר קָדֵֽשׁ׃

*Word for word:* the.voice of.Yahweh it.causes.to.tremble \[the\].wilderness he.causes.to.tremble Yahweh the.wilderness of.Kadesh

*JPS 1917:* The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of its meanings](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1502/4057/): every English meaning parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.

Sources. The words, their counts, glosses and the word-for-word renderings: MACULA Hebrew (the Westminster Leningrad Codex; Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0). Meanings: the OpenScriptures lexical index (CC BY 4.0), Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906 and Jastrow 1903 (public domain, via Sefaria); Targum Onkelos from Sefaria (public domain). Translation: JPS 1917 (public domain, from eBible.org).