Word study
Desert
10 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: desert, deserted, deserts, deserting. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “desert” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- מִדְבָּר midbârmouthtranslated this way 55 times of its 269 uses · Strong’s H4057Noun · Translated: wilderness 203, desert 49, like a desert 3, open 3Full study and all 256 verses →
Genesis 14:6 and the Horites in the area of Mount Seir, as far as El-paran, which is near the desert.
Exodus 15:22 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Desert of Shur. For three days they walked in the desert without finding water.
- עֲרָבָה ărâbâhdesert-plain, steppetranslated this way 10 times of its 60 uses · Strong’s H6160Noun · Translated: Arabah 24, plains 17, desert 8Full study and all 56 verses →
Isaiah 33:9 The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is ashamed and decayed. Sharon is like a desert; Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
Jeremiah 2:6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
- צִיִּי tsîîdesert-dwellertranslated this way 5 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H6728Noun · Translated: desert creatures 4, nomads 1, desert 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Psalm 74:14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; You fed him to the creatures of the desert.
Isaiah 13:21 But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.
- עָזַב âzableave, forsake, loosetranslated this way 5 times of its 214 uses · Strong’s H5800Verb · Translated: forsaken 47, forsake 36, leave 23, abandoned 22Full study and all 206 verses →
Joshua 22:3 All this time you have not deserted your brothers, up to this very day, but have kept the charge given you by the LORD your God.
- שָׁמֵם shâmêmbe desoleted, appalledtranslated this way 5 times of its 85 uses · Strong’s H8074Verb · Translated: appalled 17, desolate 10, deserted 5, desolation 4Full study and all 81 verses →
Psalm 69:25 May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents.
Isaiah 33:8 The highways are deserted; travel has ceased. The treaty has been broken, the witnesses are despised, and human life is disregarded.
- קָאַת qâathpelicantranslated this way 4 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H6893Noun · Translated: desert owl 4, owl 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Leviticus 11:18 the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey,
Deuteronomy 14:17 the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant,
- יְשִׁימוֹן yeshîmônwaste, wildernesstranslated this way 4 times of its 13 uses · Strong’s H3452Noun · Translated: Jeshimon 4, desert 4, wasteland 3, wilderness 1Full study and all 13 verses →
Psalm 78:40 How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!
Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
- פּוּץ pûtsbe dispersed, scatteredtranslated this way 3 times of its 67 uses · Strong’s H6327Verb · Translated: scattered 30, scatter 15, disperse 5, deserted 2Full study and all 66 verses →
1 Samuel 13:8 And Saul waited seven days for the time appointed by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the troops began to desert Saul.
2 Kings 25:5 but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and his whole army deserted him.
- נָפַל nâphalfall, lietranslated this way 3 times of its 432 uses · Strong’s H5307Verb · Translated: fall 104, fell 77, fallen 54, falls 21Full study and all 403 verses →
- צִיָּה tsîâhdryness, droughttranslated this way 2 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H6723Adjective · Translated: dry 7, dry land 3, drought 2, desert 2Full study and all 16 verses →
Psalm 78:17 But they continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
Psalm 105:41 He opened a rock, and water gushed out; it flowed like a river in the desert.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἔρημος érēmosdeserted, desolate, a deserttranslated this way 3 times of its 47 uses · Strong’s G2048Adjective · Translated: wilderness 31, solitary 6, desolate 4, desert 2Full study and all 47 verses →
Acts 1:20 “For it is written in the book of Psalms: ‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and, ‘May another take his position.’
Acts 7:30 After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.
- ἀφίημι aphíēmiI send away, release, remit, forgive, permittranslated this way 2 times of its 142 uses · Strong’s G863Verb · Translated: left 36, forgive 22, forgiven 22, let 12Full study and all 130 verses →
Matthew 26:56 But this has all happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted Him and fled.
Mark 14:50 Then everyone deserted Him and fled.
- ἐγκαταλείπω enkataleípōI abandon, deserttranslated this way 2 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s G1459Verb · Translated: forsaken 3, deserted 2Full study and all 10 verses →
2 Timothy 4:10 because Demas, in his love of this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.
2 Timothy 4:16 At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be charged against them.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
What the Bible says about desert: passages by topic →
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.