In those days John the Baptist came into the wilderness ¹  of Judea proclaiming,

After they journeyed ¹  from Rephidim, they came to the Desert of Sinai, and they camped in the desert; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. ² 

He shouted at ¹  the Red Sea and it dried up; he led them through the deep water as if it were a desert.

I looked and saw that the fruitful land had become a desert and that all of the cities had been laid in ruins. The Lord had brought this all about because of his blazing anger. ¹ 

The towns of Babylonia have become heaps of ruins. She has become a dry and barren desert. No one lives in those towns any more. No one even passes through them. ¹ 

Wild animals and wild dogs will congregate there; ¹  wild goats will bleat to one another. ²  Yes, nocturnal animals ³  will rest there and make for themselves a nest. ⁴ 

(9:1) I wish I had a lodging place in the desert where I could spend some time like a weary traveler. ¹  Then I would desert my people and walk away from them because they are all unfaithful to God, a congregation ²  of people that has been disloyal to him. ³ 

Therefore desert creatures and jackals will live there. Ostriches ¹  will dwell in it too. ²  But no people will ever live there again. No one will dwell there for all time to come. ³ 

¹ Then Moses led Israel to journey ²  away from the Red Sea. They went out to the Desert of Shur, walked for three days ³  into the desert, and found no water.

Let the desert and its cities shout out, the towns where the nomads of Kedar live! Let the residents of Sela shout joyfully; let them shout loudly from the mountaintops.

“At that time the people of Judah and Jerusalem ¹  will be told, ‘A scorching wind will sweep down from the hilltops in the desert on ²  my dear people. ³  It will not be a gentle breeze for winnowing the grain and blowing away the chaff. ⁴ 

and the Horites in their hill country of Seir, as far as El Paran, which is near the desert. ¹ 

He built up Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage cities he had built in Hamath.

They insulted God, saying, ¹  “Is God really able to give us food ²  in the wilderness?

So he made a solemn vow ¹  that he would make them die ²  in the desert,

Here is a message about Arabia: In the thicket of Arabia you spend the night, you Dedanite caravans.

who led them through the deep water? Like a horse running on flat land ¹  they did not stumble.

the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make ¹  his paths straight.’” ² 

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 

Is this the one who made the world like a desert, who ruined its ¹  cities, and refused to free his prisoners so they could return home?”’ ²