מִדְבָּר
wilderness
‘wilderness’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Absolute-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
3 verses where H4057 appears in the Construct state in the Book of Deuteronomy. Filtered view — show all forms. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Deuteronomy
- Deuteronomy 2:8 מִדְבַּ֥ר n c ms cs So we passed by from our brothers the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, from the way of the Arabah from Elath and from Ezion Geber. We turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab.
- Deuteronomy 2:26 מִ/מִּדְבַּ֣ר prep + n c ms cs I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,
- Deuteronomy 32:51 מִדְבַּר n c ms cs because you trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn't sanctify me in the midst of the children of Israel.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, מדבר (midbâr) means “wilderness.” It first appears in Genesis 14:6. It turns up in 257 verses across 27 books, a common footprint. Not a single-sense word: explore its full sense range. It clusters with דבר, דבורה and דביר under a shared root. Dig into 257-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H4057 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 257
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 257 distinct verses.
- 27 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 27 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #183
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 183 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 257 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 257 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 117 verses · 46%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 99 verses · 39%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 41 verses · 16%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 2 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Wilderness 207×, Desert 13×, Through the wilderness 9×
- American Standard Version†: Wilderness 212×, Toward the wilderness 5×, Through the wilderness 3×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Wilderness 194×, Desert 44×, Through the wilderness 5×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Wilderness 201×, Wilderness of 39×, Desert 6×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4057 across 270† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 23 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4057 across 269† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 39 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H4057 across 269† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 16 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 2 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4057 across 276† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 14 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 4 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
מדבר I mouth, as organ of speech,
מדבר II wilderness
- 1. tracts of land, used for the pasturage of flocks and herds, דָּֽשְׁאוּ נְאוֹת מִדְבָּר the pastures of the wilderness put forth green grass Jo 2:22; יִרְעֲפוּ נ׳ מ׳ the pastures of the wilderness drop (fertility) ψ 65:13; יָֽבְשׁוּ נ׳ מ׳ are dried up Je 23:10, cf. Je 9:9 Jo 1:19, 20. e.g. Joel 2:22
- 2. uninhabited land, מִדְבָּר לֹא־אָדָם בּוֹ wilderness in which is no man Jb 38:26; the abode of pelicans ψ 102:7; wild asses Jb 24:5 Je 2:24; jackals Mal 1:3; ostriches Lam 4:3; מִי־יִתְּנֵנִי בַמִּדְבָּר מְלוֹן אֹרְחִים וְאֶֽעֶזְבָה אֶת־עַמִּי O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfarers, that I might leave my people Je 9:1; טוֹב שֶׁבֶת בְּאֶרֶץ מִדְבָּר better to dwell in a desert land, than with a contentious woman Pr 21:19; בְּאֶרֶץ מִדְבָּר וּבְתֹהוּ יְלֵל יְשִׁמֹן in a desert land, and in a waste howling wilderness Dt 32:10. e.g. Job 38:26
- 3. large tracts of such land bearing various names, in certain districts of which there might be towns and cities: יִשְׂאוּ מִדְבָּר וְעָרָיו חֲצֵרִים תֵּשֵׁב קֵדָר let the wilderness and its cities lift up (their voice), the villages that Kedar doth inhabit Is 42:11. There were six cities in the wilderness of Judah Jos 15:61, 62; הַמִּדְבָּר usually = wilderness of the wanderings Gn 14:6 Nu 14:16, 29, 32, 33(×2) +, or the great Arabian desert Ju 11:22 +; but may also refer to any other Ct 3:6; 8:5. Special tracts—(a) of the wilderness of the wanderings were מ׳ שׁוּר Ex 15:22, סין Ex 16:1 +, סיני Ex 19:1 +, פארן Nu 13:26 +, צן Nu 20:1 +, קדשׁ ψ 29:8, אתם Nu 33:8; (b) in W. Pal. מ׳ יהודה Ju 1:16 ψ 63:1 cf. Jos 15:61, מעוֹן 1 S 23:24, 25, זיף 1 S 23:15; 26:2, באר שׁבע Gn 21:14, עין גדי 1 S 24:2, תקוע 2 Ch 20:20, ירואל 2 Ch 20:16, גבעון 2 S 2:24; (c) in East. Palestine מואב Dt 2:8, אדום 2 K 3:8, קדמות Dt 2:26. e.g. Isaiah 42:11
- 4. fig. וְשַׂמְתִּיהָ כַמִּדְבָּר וְשַׁתִּהָ כְּאֶרֶץ צִיָּה and (lest I) make her as a wilderness and set her like a dry land Ho 2:5; הֲמִדְבָּר הָיִיתִי לְיִשְׂרָאֵל have I been a wilderness to Israel? Je 2:31. e.g. Hosea 2:5
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
I. n.m. mouth, as organ of speech,—מִדְבָּרֵךְ נָאוֶה thy mouth is lovely Ct 4:3 ‖שִׂפְתוֹתַיִךְ, 𝔊 λαλιά, Jer eloquium.
II. n.m. wilderness—Dt 32:10 +; c. ה loc. מִדְבָּ֫רָה Jos 18:12 + 15 times; cstr. Ex 15:22 +; מִדְבַּ֫רָה 1 K 19:15; sf. מִדְבָּרָהּ Is 51:3;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from דבר (dâbar) (H1696) — to speak.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
דָּבַר
- (b. h.) to join, arrange, lead (the flock); v. next w.
- (b. h.) to converse, speak. Ber. 31ᵇ, a. fr. דִּבְּרָה תורה כלשון ב"א the Torah speaks according to the language of men, i.e. uses metaphors and phrases adapted to human understanding. Sot. 12ᵇ שעתיד לְדַבֵּר וכ׳ destined to speak to Divinity. Ter. I, 2 חרש שדִּבְּרוּ … מְדַבֵּר wherever the scholars use the word ḥērēsh, they mean one who neither hears nor talks. Mekh. Bo 7, end, a. fr. או אינו מְדַבֵּר אלא ב־ or does perhaps the text speak only of—? [מְדַבֵּר as a noun, v. s. v.].
- to hold communion, converse. Mekh. Bo, introd. לא נ׳ עמו וכ׳ the Lord did not hold communion with him outside the capital of Egypt. Ib. fr.
- , same, esp. part. f. מִדַּבֶּרֶת being on terms of intimacy with a man. Keth. I, 8 ראוה מד׳ עם אחד (omit בשוק); expl. ib. 13ᵃ. Ib. VII, 6 מד׳ עם כל אדם she is intimate with everybody. Ib. לכשהיא מד׳ בתוך ביתה וכ׳ when her neighbors can hear her voice in moments of intimacy with her husband.
- to make submissive, persuade, v. דִּיבּוּר. Macc. 11ᵃ דִבֵּר לחוד יַדְבֵּר לחוד the Piel dibber has one meaning (speaking harshly), and the Hif. yadber another.
דְּבַר
- 1. to seize, take, lead, drive. Targ. Gen. XIX, 15; a. fr. (h. לקח).—Ib. XXXI, 18; a. fr. (h. נהג).
- 2. to conduct one’s self (cmp. נָהַג). Erub. 14ᵇ, a. e. פוק חזי מאי עמא ד׳ go out and see how the people conduct themselves (what the religious usage is). Koh. R. to IX, 10, v. כְּלוּם.
- 1. to lead, drive. Targ. O. Ex. III, 1 ed. Berl. (ed. דְּבַר). Ib. XIV, 21 (ed. דְּבַר, h. text ויולך). Targ. Ez. XVI, 12; a. e.—Keth. 62ᵇ sq. עד כמה קא מְדַבְּרַת אלמנות חיים how long yet wilt thou lead a life of living widowhood (separation from a living husband)?
- 2. to carry off. Targ. Ezek. XXXIII, 6; a. e.
- to take, lead. Targ. Is. XIV, 2; a. fr.—Bets. 21ᵇ אַדְבְּרֵיה וכ׳ took him out on a walk; ib. 29ᵃ. Y. Yeb. XIII, 13ᶜ bot. מַדְבְּרוּן לה גבר they introduce to her a suitor.
- 1. to be seized, taken away. Targ. Prov. XXIV, 11. Targ. Ez. XXXIII, 6. Targ. II Kings II, 9 sq.; a. e.
- 2. to conduct one’s self. Targ. Gen. XXXIII, 14 אֵידַבַּר ed. Berl. (h. text אתנהלה).
דָּבָר
- preced.)
- 1. word, utterance, command (cmp. דִּיבּוּר). B. Bath. 56ᵇ (ref. to Deut. XIX, 15) ד׳ ולא חצי ד׳ a statement (testimony) but not a partial statement. Mekh. Bo, introd. היה הד׳ לאהרן (Tanḥ. ib. 5 דבור) the word of the Lord came to &c.; a. fr.—דְּבַר תורה according to the Biblical law. Erub. 81; a. fr.—Pl. דְּבָרִים, constr. דִּבְרֵי. ד׳ תורה Biblical laws; ד׳ סופרים Rabbinical laws. Ib. Yeb. IX, 3; a. fr.—ד׳ קבלה prophetic exhortations or incidental utterances in other Biblical books than the Pentateuch. Ḥag. 10ᵇ; Nidd. 23ᵃ; a. e.—B. Mets. 49ᵃ; Bekh. 13ᵇ ד׳ יש בהם משום מחוסרי אמנה to word of mouth the rules concerning the faithless are applied, i.e. a verbal agreement is morally binding. B. Mets. 48ᵃ הנושא ונותן בד׳ וכ׳ he who contracts verbally has no legal claim. Ib. ד׳ ואיכא … קאי באבל he who retracts a verbal transaction with which a payment of money was connected, comes under the category of those against whom the words ‘but the scholars declared’ (ib. IV, 2) has been pronounced.—דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים the Book of Chronicles. Lev. R. s. 1. B. Bath. 14ᵇ.—דָּבָר אַחֵר (abbrev. ד"א) another interpretation (is this). Gen. R. s. 1, beg.; a. fr.—2) thing, affair, object, occurrence &c. Sot. 28ᵇ ד׳ שיש בו דעת לישאל an object which has sense to ask, i.e. a rational being, opp. ד׳ שאין וכ׳ dumb creatures &c.—Num. R. s. 11 ד׳ שבינך לבינו that which concerns only thy relation to God; v. בֵּין.—ד׳ שבממון a monetary affair. B. Mets. 94ᵃ; a. fr.—ד׳ הלמד מענינו a thing (law) derived from the context on the very subject. Sifra, introd.; a. fr.—ד׳ אחר (abbr. ד"א) something not to be named, a) idolatry. Men. XIII, 10 ואין צריך לומר לד"א much less priests who have been offering to idols; a. fr.—b) swine. Ber. 43ᵇ (prov.) תלה ליה קורא לד"א וכ׳ hang a palm shoot around the swine and it will follow its habits (of wallowing in the mud). Sabb. 129ᵃ sq.; a. e.—c) leprosy Ib. אי פגע בד"א קשה לד"א if he meets a swine (after blood letting), he is in danger of becoming a leper.—d) unchaste conduct, sexual intercourse, sodomy &c. Ib. 17ᵇ על בנותיהן משום ד"א ועל ד"א משום ד"א they forbade connection with their daughters on account of idolatry, and decreed something else (that a gentile child should be unclean as though afflicted with gonorrhœa) on account of sodomy. Ber. 8ᵇ צנועין בד"א chaste in marital life; a. fr.—Pl. as above.—בעל ד׳ the person to deal with, opponent, party. B. Mets. 14ᵃ לאו ב"ד דידי את I have nothing to do with thee; a. fr.—לא היו ד׳ מעולם there were no such things, I deny it outright. Shebu. 41ᵇ; a. fr.—ד׳ בגב, ד׳ בגו, v. גַּב, גֵּו. e.g. Deuteronomy 19:15
דֶּבֶר
- , esp. Targ. Ez. XXXIII, 6) death, pestilence. Ab. V, 8. Sabb. 33ᵃ; a. fr.—Esp. the plague of pestilence in Egypt. Ex. R. s. 12. Tanḥ. Vaëra 14; a. fr.
דַּבָּר
- (דבר) leader.—Pl. דַּבָּרִין. Snh. 8ᵃ ד׳ אחד וכ׳ a generation must have one leader, but not two.
מְדַבֵּר
- (דָּבַר)
- 1. speaker.—Pl. מְדַבְּרִים. Ber. 63ᵇ, a. e. ראש המ׳ וכ׳ the first among the speakers on all occasions (attribute of R. Judah).–
- 2. the anterior part of the tongue. Bekh. VI, 8; Tosef. ib. IV, 11; Kidd. 25ᵃ
מִדְבָּר
- v. דְּבַר) pasture-ground, desert. Gen. R. s. 31, end. Cant. R. to IV, 4 (play on מדברך ib. 3) אע"פ שהוא מ׳וכ׳ although the Temple is a desert, you are bound to observe the sacredness of its precincts now that it is ruined &c.; a. fr.—מֵתֵי מ׳ the generation that died in the wilderness. B. Bath. 73ᵇ bot.; a. fr.—Tosef. Macc. III (II), 2; Macc. 9ᵇ; Y. ib. II, 31ᵈ top בצר במ׳ (b. h.) Bezer in the Wilderness, on the eastern side of the Jordan.—Tosef. Men. IX, 13 כבשים ממ׳, read: ממִדְבַּר חברון from the pasture-ground of Hebron; v. Men. 87ᵃ; Sot. 34ᵇ.—Pl. מִדְבָּרוֹת. Ber. IX, 2. Ib. 54ᵇ הולכי מ׳ those travelling in the deserts; a. e.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 82 distinct written forms H4057 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 22 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4057, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- דבורה dᵉbôwrâh H1682 bee
- דביר dᵉbîyr H1687 holy of holies
- דבר dâbâr H1697 word
- דבר deber H1698 pestilence
- דבר dôber H1699 pasture
- דברה dôbᵉrâh H1702 raft
- דברה dabbârâh H1703 word
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 9 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 242 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 257 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 14:6
- Exodus 3:1
- Leviticus 7:38
- Numbers 1:1
- Deuteronomy 1:1
- Joshua 1:4
- Judges 1:16
- 1 Samuel 4:8
- 2 Samuel 2:24
- 1 Kings 2:34
- 2 Kings 3:8
- 1 Chronicles 5:9
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
