These cities were ¹  in the desert: Beth Arabah, Middin, Secacah,

Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took into exile some of the poor, ¹  the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the rest of the craftsmen.

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.

Wild animals will rest there, the ruined ¹  houses will be full of hyenas. ²  Ostriches will live there, wild goats will skip among the ruins. ³ 

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 

Jeremiah answered, “That’s a lie! I am not deserting to the Babylonians.” ¹  But Irijah would not listen to him. Irijah put Jeremiah under arrest and took him to the officials.

And the child kept growing ¹  and becoming strong ²  in spirit, and he was in the wilderness ³  until the day he was revealed ⁴  to Israel.

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one ¹  who called you by the grace of Christ ²  and are following ³  a different ⁴  gospel –

They did not ask: ‘Where is the Lord who delivered us out of Egypt, who brought us through the wilderness, through a land of desert sands and rift valleys, through a land of drought and deep darkness, ¹  through a land in which no one travels, and where no one lives?’ ² 

So like a lion from the thicket their enemies will kill them. Like a wolf from the desert they will destroy them. Like a leopard they will lie in wait outside their cities and totally destroy anyone who ventures out. ¹  For they have rebelled so much and done so many unfaithful things. ² 

I will send the wild animals ¹  against you and they will bereave you of your children, ²  annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population ³  so that your roads will become deserted.

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 

David stayed in the strongholds that were in the desert and in the hill country of the desert of Ziph. Saul looked for him all the time, ¹  but God did not deliver David ²  into his hand.

So all the men of Israel deserted ¹  David and followed Sheba son of Bicri. But the men of Judah stuck by their king all the way from the Jordan River ²  to Jerusalem. ³ 

and suddenly ¹  a great wind ²  swept across ³  the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they died! And I – only I alone – escaped to tell you!”

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

At that time ¹  their fortified cities will be like the abandoned summits of the Amorites, ²  which they abandoned because of the Israelites; there will be desolation.

The land ¹  dries up ²  and withers away; the forest of Lebanon shrivels up ³  and decays. Sharon ⁴  is like the desert; ⁵  Bashan and Carmel ⁶  are parched. ⁷ 

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