The wilderness still had its own special dangers when the apostle Paul made his missionary journeys.—2 Cor. 11:26; compare Acts 21:38.

FIGURATIVE USES

The wilderness regions to the E and SE of Palestine were also the source of fierce hot winds now called “siroccos,” from the Arabic word (sharquiyyeh) for “east wind.” (Isa. 27:8) These winds blowing in from the desert have a tremendous parching effect, absorbing all the moisture in the air and often carrying with them fine, yellowish dust. (Jer. 4:11) The siroccos occur principally in the spring and fall (and those in the spring can be very destructive to vegetation and crops. (Ezek. 17:10) Speaking of Ephraim, as the tribe representing the apostate northern kingdom of Israel, Jehovah foretold that, though Ephraim “should show fruitfulness, an east wind . . . will come. From a wilderness it is coming up, and it will dry up his well and drain his spring. That one will pillage the treasure of all desirable articles.” This devastating east wind out of the wilderness symbolized the attack on Israel by Assyria out of the E, plundering and carrying the Israelites captive.—Hos. 13:12-16.

Wilderness regions themselves, characteristically thinly inhabited and manifesting a lack of human attention and cultivation, were often used to depict the destructive results of enemy invasion. Because of Judah’s unfaithfulness, the armies of Babylon would make her ‘holy cities a wilderness, Zion a sheer wilderness, Jerusalem a desolate waste’ (Isa. 64:10), her orchards and cultivated fields all taking on a wilderness appearance. (Jer. 4:26; 9:10-12) Her princely rulers, who had been like majestic cedars of a forest, would be felled. (Jer. 22:6, 7; compare Ezekiel 17:1-4, 12, 13.) On the other hand, in retribution for their hatred and opposition to God’s kingdom arrangement, the enemy nations, such as Babylon, Egypt, Edom and others, were to undergo a similar experience. Particularly Babylon was singled out as due to become a “waterless wilderness and a desert plain,” uninhabited, forgotten in her desolation.—Jer. 50:12-16; Joel 3:19; Zeph. 2:9, 10.

By contrast, the restoration of Judah, after the seventy-year exile, would be like converting a wilderness region into an Edenic garden, with fruitful orchards and productive fields, watered by streams and rivers, with reedy plants, leafy trees and blossoming flowers, all making the land appear to rejoice.—Isa. 35:1, 2; 51:3.

Individuals

Similar references to individuals show that such prophecies apply primarily in a spiritual, rather than a literal, way. Thus, the one trusting in men rather than Jehovah is likened to a solitary tree in a desert plain, with no hope of seeing good. But the one trusting in Jehovah is like “a tree planted by the waters,” fruitful, luxuriant, secure. (Jer. 17:5-8) These contrasts also aid in gaining a mental picture of what constituted a wilderness region.

“Wilderness of the sea”

The “wilderness [midh·barʹ] of the sea” at Isaiah 21:1 has been understood by some commentators to be an enigmatic expression referring to the southern part of ancient Babylonia. When the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers annually overflowed their banks this region became as a ‘wilderness sea.’ The Greek Septuagint Version omits the word for “sea” from this text and the consonantal Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah can be interpreted to read “words.” Because of this, some suggest the following translation of Isaiah 21:1: “Words like storm winds sweeping through the Negeb, coming from the desert, from a terrible land.” (The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. V, p. 286) If accepted, such translation might indicate that the “words” of a “hard vision” (vs. 2) against Babylon rushed through the prophet’s mind like desert storm winds across the Negeb.

In Revelation

In the book of Revelation, the wilderness is used in a dual sense: as representing solitude and refuge from attackers in the case of the symbolic woman who gives birth to the royal male child (Rev. 12:6, 14), and as representing the home of wild beasts in the case of the symbolic woman “Babylon the Great,” who rides the seven-headed wild beast.—Rev. 17:3-6, 12-14.

WILDERNESS OF JUDAH

See JUDAH, WILDERNESS OF.

WILDERNESS OF THE WANDERING

The region where the Israelites spent about forty years after the exodus from Egypt. (Deut. 8:2) It is not possible to determine the exact route of their wandering, for many of the locations mentioned in the Bible account cannot be identified. (See the names of the various places under their own headings.) Tradition links Mount Sinai with a red granite ridge centrally situated in the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula. It appears that, for a considerable distance before getting to Mount Sinai, the Israelites traveled fairly close to the Red Sea (evidently its western arm now known as the Gulf of Suez), one of their encampments being by the Red Sea. From Mount Sinai, where the Israelites arrived in the third month (Sivan, May-June) after leaving Egypt (Ex. 19:3), they took a northerly course and eventually came to Kadesh (Kadesh-barnea) in the wilderness of Zin. Sometime after engaging in rebellious murmurings due to the bad report brought back by ten of the spies sent into the Promised Land, the Israelites seemingly left Kadesh, returning there in the first month of the fortieth year after the Exodus. In the interim they had encamped at various places, including Ezion-geber at the head of the Gulf of Aqabah. Subsequent to their second departure from Kadesh, the Israelites pitched camp at a number of places near the territory of Edom until finally coming to the desert plains of Moab.—Num. 12:16–13:3, 25, 26; 20:1; 33:9-49; see KADESH, KADESH-BARNEA.

With the exception of scattered oases, the Sinai Peninsula is largely a region of sand, hard gravel and rock. Meager vegetation grows in the wadis. Anciently there may have been a greater amount of rainfall and also more vegetation. However, without God’s care, the Israelites, possibly numbering three million, could never have survived in this barren region. As Moses told them on the plains of Moab: “Watch out for yourself that you may not forget Jehovah your God . . . who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves; who caused you to walk through the great and fear-inspiring wilderness, with poisonous serpents and scorpions and with thirsty ground that has no water; who brought forth water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you with manna in the wilderness, which your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and in order to put you to the test so as to do you good in your afterdays.”—Deut. 8:11-16.

WILD GOAT

See GOAT.

WILLOW

[Heb., tsaph·tsa·phahʹ].

The name of this tree in Hebrew corresponds with the Arabic safsaf, which is applied to the willow tree. There are four types of willow growing in Palestine, one designated by the botanical term Salix safsaf, but the most common is the Salix acmophylla. The Hebrew word occurs only once, at Ezekiel 17:5, where the symbolic “seed of the land,” evidently referring to Zedekiah, is figuratively planted by the king of Babylon as “a willow by vast waters.” The willow trees are found along the bank of rivers and shallow streams and other moist places, where they sprout quickly from cuttings or slips and grow rapidly. They never attain the height of poplar trees but grow as shrubs or small trees