¹ When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, ²  he did not go as at the other times ³  to seek for omens, ⁴  but he set his face ⁵  toward the wilderness.

For the Lord had said of them, “They will surely die in the wilderness.” And there was not left a single man of them, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

“Our father died in the wilderness, although ¹  he was not part of ²  the company of those that gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah; but he died for his own sin, ³  and he had no sons.

So the Lord’s anger was kindled against the Israelites, and he made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until all that generation that had done wickedly before ¹  the Lord was finished. ² 

your southern border ¹  will extend from the wilderness of Zin along the Edomite border, and your southern border will run eastward to the extremity of the Salt Sea,

including the hill country, the lowlands, ¹  the Arabah, the slopes, the wilderness, and the Negev – the land of ²  the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites:

The land allotted to the tribe of Judah by its clans reached to the border of Edom, to the Wilderness of Zin in the Negev far to the south. ¹ 

They retreated before the Israelites, taking the road to the wilderness. But the battle overtook ¹  them as men from the surrounding cities struck them down. ² 

The rest ¹  turned and ran toward the wilderness, heading toward the cliff of Rimmon. But the Israelites ²  caught ³  five thousand of them on the main roads. They stayed right on their heels ⁴  all the way to Gidom and struck down two thousand more.

Solomon and the entire assembly went to the worship center ¹  in Gibeon, for the tent where they met God ²  was located there, which Moses the Lord’s servant had made in the wilderness.

An edict was sent throughout Judah and Jerusalem requiring the people to bring to the Lord the tax that Moses, God’s servant, imposed on Israel in the wilderness. ¹ 

“Go and declare in the hearing of the people of Jerusalem: ¹  ‘This is what the Lord says: “I have fond memories of you, ²  how devoted you were to me in your early years. ³  I remember how you loved me like a new bride; you followed me through the wilderness, through a land that had never been planted.

This is the man who was in the congregation ¹  in the wilderness ²  with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors, ³  and he ⁴  received living oracles ⁵  to give to you. ⁶ 

The Lord’s angel ¹  found Hagar near a spring of water in the desert – the spring that is along the road to Shur. ² 

When they left ¹  Egypt, Israel traveled ²  through the desert as far as the Red Sea and then came to Kadesh.

The Speaker: ¹  Who is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, like ²  a fragrant billow ³  of myrrh and frankincense, ⁴  every kind of fragrant powder ⁵  of the traveling merchants? ⁶ 

Here is a message about the Desert by the Sea: ¹  Like strong winds blowing in the south, ²  one invades from the desert, from a land that is feared.

Our ancestors ¹  ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” ² 

¹ Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the Lord, ²  the God of Israel, ‘Release ³  my people so that they may hold a pilgrim feast ⁴  to me in the desert.’”

Tell him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you to say, ¹  “Release my people, that they may serve me ²  in the desert!” But until now ³  you have not listened. ⁴