region, arabah denotes a wilderness. It is also translated “plains;” as “the
plains of Jericho” (Joshua 5:10; 2 Kings 25:5), “the plains of Moab”
(Numbers 22:1; Deuteronomy 34:1, 8), “the plains of the wilderness” (2
Samuel 17:16).
(3.) In the Revised Version of Numbers 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 Psalm 78:40; 106:14;
Isaiah 43:19, 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 (Numbers 21:20; 23:28), the most terrible of all the
deserts with which the Israelites were acquainted. It is called “the desert”
in Exodus 23:31; Deuteronomy 11:24. (See JESHIMON.)
(4.) A dry place; hence a desolation (Psalm 9:6), desolate (Leviticus
26:34); the rendering of the Hebrew word horbah’. It is rendered “desert”
only in Psalm 102:6, Isaiah 48:21, and Ezekiel 13:4, where it means the
wilderness of Sinai.
(5.) This word is the symbol of the Jewish church when they had forsaken
God (Isaiah 40:3). Nations destitute of the knowledge of God are called a
“wilderness” (32:15, midbar). It is a symbol of temptation, solitude, and
persecution (Isaiah 27:10, midbar; 33:9, arabah).