Word

מִדְבָּר

midbâr · H4057 · Hebrew · 271 occurrences

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Place

Meanings

  1. steppe, desert, wilderness

    Area not very suitable for sedentary life and agriculture because of its lack of water; suitable for grazing domestic animals and only inhabited by nomadic tribes and wild animals

    Examples

    Genesis 14:6 and the Horites on their Mount Seir, as far as El-paran, which is by the wilderness.

    Genesis 16:7 Now the angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.

    Genesis 21:14 So Abraham got up early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.

  2. mouth

    Poetic language: the opening and cavity in the lower part of the face, surrounded by the lips, through which vocal sounds are emitted

    Examples

    Song of Solomon 4:3 “Your lips are like a scarlet thread, And your mouth is beautiful. Your temples are like a slice of a pomegranate Behind your veil.

How it’s used In 10 roles

Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.

the word studied the word it goes with

Whose, or of whatGenitive or possessive

59 occurrences in 24 groups

Words describing itAdjectives, demonstratives, participles

15 occurrences in 11 groups

Named alongside itApposition

5 occurrences in 7 groups

What it doesIt is the subject

4 occurrences in 4 groups

What is done to itIt is the object

9 occurrences in 4 groups

Second object ofSecond object

2 occurrences in 2 groups

What it is said to bePredicate

1 occurrences in 1 groups

What is said to be itIt is the predicate

3 occurrences in 3 groups

After prepositionsPrepositional phrases

190 occurrences in 8 groups

In phrases “… of it”It is the genitive

28 occurrences in 13 groups

When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.

MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.

In the other Testament 1 word
ἔρημος érēmos · G2048 · uninhabited, deserted, desert
Greek ἔρημος (érēmos, G2048) (literally 'lonesome,' hence 'waste' or 'wilderness') serves as the standard Septuagint rendering of Hebrew מִדְבָּר, both denoting uninhabited wilderness or desert terrain — a systematic translation equivalence found across the vast majority of Old Testament wilderness passages.
Semantic domains 2 entries
Landscapes001002004
מִדְבָּר denotes wilderness or desert, as in the recurring wilderness settings of the Exodus narrative (e.g. Genesis 21:14, 21:20-21), placing it among terrain features.
People001001003
The word's gloss also includes 'speech,' since the same root can denote the mouth or organ of speech in a rare related usage, tying this wilderness-word to a bodily/speech sense in certain contexts.
Word family 11 words
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon H4057. midbar I. [מִדְבָּר] noun masculine mouth, as organ of speech, — נָאוֶה…
H4057. midbar
I. [מִדְבָּר] noun masculine mouth, as organ of speech, — נָאוֶה מִדְבָּרֵךְ thy mouth is lovely Son 4:3 || ᵐ5 שִׁפְתוֺתַיִךְ, λαλιά, Jerome eloquium.
II. מִדְבָּר270 noun masculine wilderness — Deu 32:10 +; with ה locative מִדְבָּ֫רָה Jos 18:12 Jos 18:15t.; construct Exo 15:22 +; מִדְבַּ֫רָה 1Ki 19:15; suffix מִדְבָּרָהּ Isa 51:3; —
1 tracts of land, used for the pasturage of flocks and herds, מִדְבָּר נְאוֺת דָּֽשְׁאוּ the pastures of the wilderness put forth green grass Joe 2:22; נ ׳יִרְעֲפוּ ׳מ the pastures of the wilderness drop (fertility) Psa 65:13; נ ׳יָָֽבְשׁוּ ׳מ are dried up Jer 23:10, compare Jer 9:9; Joe 1:19-20,.
2 uninhabited land, בּוֺ לֹאאָֿדָם מִדְבָּר wilderness in which is no man Job 38:26; the abode of pelicans Psa 102:7; wild asses Job 24:5; Jer 2:24; jackals Mal 1:3; ostriches Lam 4:3; אֶתעַֿמִּי וְֶאעֶזְבָה אֹרְחִים מְלוֺן בַמִּדְבָּר מִייִֿתְּנֵנִי O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfarers, that I might leave my people Jer 9:1; מִדְבָּר בְּאֶרֶץ שֶׁבֶת טוֺב better to dwell in a desert land, than with a contentious woman Pro 21:19; יְשִׁמֹן יְלֵל וּבְתֹהוּ מִדְבָּר בְּאֶרֶץ in a desert land, and in a waste howling wilderness Deu 32:10.
3 large tracts of such land bearing various names, in certain districts of which there might be towns and cities: קֵדָר תֵּשֵׁב חֲצֵרִים וְעָרָיו מִדְבָּר יִשְׂאוּ let the wilderness and its cities lift up (their voice), the villages that Kedar doth inhabit Isa 42:11. There were six cities in the wilderness of Judah Jos 15:61-62, הַמִּדְבָּר usually = wilderness of the wanderings Gen 14:6; Num 14:16, Num 14:29, Num 14:32, Num 14:33 (twice in verse) +, or the great Arabian desert Jdg 11:22 +; but may also refer to any other Son 3:6; Son 8:5. Special tracts — (a) of the wilderness of the wandering were ׳מ שׁוּר Exo 15:22, סיןExo 16:1 +, סיני Exo 19:1 +, פארן Num 13:26 +, צן Num 20:1 +, קדשׁ Psa 29:8, אתם Num 33:8; (b) in West Palestine ׳מ יהודה Jdg 1:16; Psa 63:1 compare Jos 15:61, מעוֺן 1Sa 23:24-25, זיף 1Sa 23:15; 1Sa 26:2, שׁבע באר Gen 21:14, גדי עין 1Sa 24:2, תקוע2Ch 20:20, ירואל2Ch 20:16, גבעון 2Sa 2:24; (c) in Eastern Palestine מואב Deu 2:8, אדום 2Ki 3:8, קדמות Deu 2:26.
4 figurative צִיָּה כְּאֶרֶץ וְשַׁתִּהָ כַמִּדְבָּר וְשַׂמְתִּיהָ and (lest I) make her as a wilderness and set her like a dry land Hos 2:5; לְיִשְׂרָאֵל הָיִיתִי הֲמִדְבָּר have I been a wilderness to Israel ? Jer 2:31.
דבשׁ (√ of following; compare Arabic IX. become black or brown, of a colour between black and red; see derivatives; so Fl see below; yet verb in this meaning perhaps denominative from i.e. having the colour of dibs).

Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain

Topical studies with this word 2 entries

Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.

Sources

eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0

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