Deserts
69 passages listed in Nave’s Topical Bible and Torrey’s New Topical Textbook. Verse text: Berean Standard Bible; links open in your translation.
48 sections
- Arabian or Great Desert
- Barrenness
- Beersheba
- Bethaven
- Damascus
- Danger of Travelling In
- Desolate
- Desolation by Armies
- Dry and Without Water
- Edom
- Engedi
- Gibeon
- Great and Terrible
- Guides Required In
- Heath often Found In
- Infested with Robbers
- Infested with Serpents
- Infested with Wild Beasts
- Inhabited by Wandering Tribes
- Jeruel
- Judea
- Kadesh
- Kedemoth
- Maon
- Near Gaza
- Paran
- Parts of, Afforded Pasture
- Phenomena of, Alluded to Clouds of Sand and Dust
- Phenomena of, Alluded to Mirage or Deceptive Appearance of Water
- Phenomena of, Alluded to Simoom or Deadly Wind
- Phenomena of, Alluded to Tornadoes or Whirlwinds
- Shur
- Sin
- Sinai
- The Disaffected Fled To
- The Gentiles
- The Persecuted Fled To
- The World
- Those Deprived of Blessings
- Trackless
- Uncultivated
- Uninhabited and Lonesome
- Uninhabited Places
- Vast Barren Plains
- Waste and Howling
- What Affords No Support
- Zin
- Ziph
Arabian or Great Desert
- Exodus 23:31 And I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the Euphrates. For I will deliver the inhabitants into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.
Barrenness
- Psalm 106:9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.
- Psalm 107:33 He turns rivers into deserts, springs of water into thirsty ground,
- Psalm 107:35 He turns a desert into pools of water and a dry land into flowing springs.
Beersheba
- Genesis 21:14 Early in the morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a skin of water, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her away with the boy. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.
- 1 Kings 19:3–4 And Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, …
Bethaven
- Joshua 18:12 On the north side their border began at the Jordan, went up past the northern slope of Jericho, headed west through the hill country, and came out at the wilderness of Beth-aven.
Damascus
- 1 Kings 19:15 Then the LORD said to him, “Go back by the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you arrive, you are to anoint Hazael as king over Aram.
Danger of Travelling In
- Exodus 14:3 For Pharaoh will say of the Israelites, ‘They are wandering the land in confusion; the wilderness has boxed them in.’
- 2 Corinthians 11:26 In my frequent journeys, I have been in danger from rivers and from bandits, in danger from my countrymen and from the Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the country, in danger on the sea and among false brothers,
Desolate
- Ezekiel 6:14 I will stretch out My hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”
Desolation by Armies
- Jeremiah 12:10–13 Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard; they have trampled My plot of ground. They have turned My pleasant field into a desolate wasteland. …
- Jeremiah 50:12 your mother will be greatly ashamed; she who bore you will be disgraced. Behold, she will be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
Dry and Without Water
- Exodus 17:1 Then the whole congregation of Israel left the Desert of Sin, moving from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.
- Deuteronomy 8:15 He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.
Edom
- 2 Kings 3:8 Then he asked, “Which way shall we go up?” “By way of the Desert of Edom,” replied Joram.
Engedi
- 1 Samuel 24:1 After Saul had returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the wilderness of En-gedi.”
Gibeon
- 2 Samuel 2:24 But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner. By sunset, they had gone as far as the hill of Ammah opposite Giah on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon.
Great and Terrible
- Deuteronomy 1:19 And just as the LORD our God had commanded us, we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country of the Amorites, through all the vast and terrifying wilderness you have seen. When we reached Kadesh-barnea,
Guides Required In
- Numbers 10:31 “Please do not leave us,” Moses said, “since you know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you can serve as our eyes.
- Deuteronomy 32:10 He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.
Heath often Found In
- Jeremiah 17:6 He will be like a shrub in the desert; he will not see when prosperity comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
Infested with Robbers
- Jeremiah 3:2 “Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your …
- Lamentations 4:19 Those who chased us were swifter than the eagles in the sky; they pursued us over the mountains and ambushed us in the wilderness.
Infested with Serpents
- Deuteronomy 8:15 He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.
Infested with Wild Beasts
- 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.
- Mark 1:13 and He was there for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels ministered to Him.
Inhabited by Wandering Tribes
- Genesis 21:20–21 And God was with the boy, and he grew up and settled in the wilderness and became a great archer. …
- Psalm 72:9 May the nomads bow before him, and his enemies lick the dust.
- Jeremiah 25:24 all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed tribes who dwell in the desert;
Jeruel
- 2 Chronicles 20:16 Tomorrow you are to march down against them. You will see them coming up the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the valley facing the Wilderness of Jeruel.
Judea
- Matthew 3:1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea
Kadesh
- Psalm 29:8 The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh.
Kedemoth
- Deuteronomy 2:26 So from the Wilderness of Kedemoth I sent messengers with an offer of peace to Sihon king of Heshbon, saying,
Maon
- 1 Samuel 23:24–25 So they set out and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the Wilderness of Maon in the Arabah south of Jeshimon, …
Near Gaza
- Acts 8:26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go south to the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”
Paran
- Genesis 21:21 And while he was dwelling in the Wilderness of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
- Numbers 10:12 and the Israelites set out from the Wilderness of Sinai, traveling from place to place until the cloud settled in the Wilderness of Paran.
Parts of, Afforded Pasture
- Genesis 36:24 These are the sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah. (This is the Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness as he was pasturing the donkeys of his father Zibeon.)
- Exodus 3:1 Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Phenomena of, Alluded to Clouds of Sand and Dust
- Deuteronomy 28:24 The LORD will turn the rain of your land into dust and powder; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed.
- Jeremiah 4:12–13 a wind too strong for that comes from Me. Now I also pronounce judgments against them.” …
Phenomena of, Alluded to Mirage or Deceptive Appearance of Water
- Jeremiah 15:18 Why is my pain unending, and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become like a mirage to me— water that is not there.
Phenomena of, Alluded to Simoom or Deadly Wind
- 2 Kings 19:7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”
- Jeremiah 4:11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A searing wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward the daughter of My people, but not to winnow or to sift;
Phenomena of, Alluded to Tornadoes or Whirlwinds
- Isaiah 21:1 This is the burden against the Desert by the Sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping through the Negev, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror.
Shur
- Genesis 16:7 Now the angel of the LORD found Hagar by a spring of water in the desert — the spring along the road to Shur.
Sin
- Exodus 16:1 On the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt, the whole congregation of Israel set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai.
Sinai
- Exodus 19:1–2 In the third month, on the same day of the month that the Israelites had left the land of Egypt, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai. …
- Numbers 33:16 They set out from the Wilderness of Sinai and camped at Kibroth-hattaavah.
The Disaffected Fled To
- 1 Samuel 22:2 And all who were distressed or indebted or discontented rallied around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.
- Acts 21:38 “Aren’t you the Egyptian who incited a rebellion some time ago and led four thousand members of the Assassins into the wilderness?”
The Gentiles
- Isaiah 35:1 The wilderness and the dry land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.
- Isaiah 35:6 Then the lame will leap like a deer and the mute tongue will shout for joy. For waters will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
- Isaiah 41:19 I will plant cedars in the wilderness, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees. I will set cypresses in the desert, elms and boxwood together,
The Persecuted Fled To
- 1 Samuel 23:14 And David stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hill country of the Wilderness of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God would not deliver David into his hand.
- Hebrews 11:38 The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and hid in caves and holes in the ground.
The World
- Song of Solomon 3:6 Who is this coming up from the wilderness like a column of smoke, scented with myrrh and frankincense from all the spices of the merchant?
- Song of Solomon 8:5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? I roused you under the apple tree; there your mother conceived you; there she travailed and brought you forth.
Those Deprived of Blessings
- Hosea 2:3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.
Trackless
- 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.
Uncultivated
- Numbers 20:5 Why have you led us up out of Egypt to bring us to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain, figs, vines, or pomegranates — and there is no water to drink!”
- Jeremiah 2:2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
Uninhabited and Lonesome
- 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?’
Uninhabited Places
- Matthew 14:15 When evening came, the disciples came to Him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is already late. Dismiss the crowds so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”
- Mark 6:31 And He said to them, “Come with Me privately to a solitary place, and let us rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.
Vast Barren Plains
- Exodus 5:3 “The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they answered. “Please let us go on a three-day journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the LORD our God, or He may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”
- John 6:13 So they collected them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
Waste and Howling
- Deuteronomy 32:10 He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.
What Affords No Support
- Jeremiah 2:31 You people of this generation, consider the word of the LORD: “Have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of dense darkness? Why do My people say, ‘We are free to roam; we will come to You no more’?
Zin
- Numbers 20:1 In the first month, the whole congregation of Israel entered the Wilderness of Zin and stayed in Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.
- Numbers 27:14 for when the congregation contended in the Wilderness of Zin, both of you rebelled against My command to show My holiness in their sight regarding the waters.” Those were the waters of Meribah in Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin.
Ziph
- 1 Samuel 23:14–15 And David stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hill country of the Wilderness of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God would not deliver David into his hand. …
Related topics
Topics: Nave’s Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey’s New Topical Textbook (1897), public domain, via the Berean Bible topical index.