DESERT
749
DESERT
portion stands, or (b) if all the interior plastering be-
comes detached, or (c) if all the crosses disappear, or
(d) if all the walls are gradually renewed, provided on each occasion the old part is greater than the new, or
(e) if converted for a while to profane uses, provided it is not polluted (cf. Many, De Locis Sacris). (2) An altar (fixed) loses its consecration: (a) by a notable fracture of table or its support; as, for instance, if the table were broken into two large pieces, or if an anointed corner were broken off, or if the support were seriously impaired, or if one of the columns were dis- placed; (b) by removal of the table from its support, so as to disjoint them; (c) by displacing the relics, or cover of the sepulchre (cf. Schulte, Consecranda, p. 222). (3) An altar-stone loses its consecration: (a) by
/removal of the relics; (b) by fracture or removal of the cover of the sepulchre; (c) by a notable fracture of the stone; (d) by breakage of the anointed comer of stone. (4) As to the chalice and paten, see Altar, under subtitle Loss of Consecration.
Dccretalitim, III, Tit., xl, xKiii; Wernz, Jus Decretatium (Rome. 1901), Tit., xrii: M.iny, De Locis Sacris (Paris, 1904); Schulte, Consecranda (New York, 1907).
Patrick Mohrisroe.
Desert (ix the bible). — The Hebrew words trans- lated in the Douay Version of the Bible by "desert" or '"wilderness", and usually rendered by the Vulgate desertum, "solitude", or occusionally cremus, have not the same shade of meaning as the English word desert. The word wiUlcrticss, which is more frequently used than desert of the region of the Exodus, more nearly approaches the meaning of the Hebrew, though not quite expressing it. When we speak of the desert our thoughts are naturally borne to such places as the Sahara, a great sandy waste, incapable of vegetation, impossible as a dwelling-place for men, and where no human being is found except when hurrying through as quickly as he can. No such ideas are attached to the Hebrew words for desert. Four words are chiefly vised in Hebrew to express the idea: (1) "131D (midbar), the more general word. It is from the root 13T [dabar, "to lead" (cattle to pasture); cf. German Trift from treiben]. Hence midbar among its other meanings has that of tracts of pasturage for flocks. So Joel, ii, 22: "The beautiful places of the wilderness are spnmg", or literally: "The pastures of the wilder- ness shoot forth". So, too, the desert was not neces- sarily uninhabited. Thus (Is., xlii, 11) we read: "Let the desert (midbar) and the cities thereof be ex- alted: Cedar shall dwell in houses", or rather, "the villages that Cedar doth inhabit". Not that there were towns in the desert occupied by a stable popula- tion. The inhabitant's were mostly nomads. For the desert was not a place regularly cultivated like the fields and gardens of ordinary civilized districts. Rather, it was a region in which was to be found pas- turage, not rich, but sufficient for .sheep and goats, and more abundant after the rainy season. The des- ert, too, was looked upon as the abode of mid beasts ■ — lions (Ecclus., xiii, 2.3), wild asses (Job, xxiv, 5), jackals (Mai., i, 3), etc. It was not fertilized by streams of water, but springs were to be foimd there (Gen., xvi, 7), and in places cisterns to collect the rainfall. Midbar is the word generally used in the Pentateuch for the desert of the Exodus; but of the regions of the Exodus various districts are distinguished as the de-sert of Sin (Ex., xvi, 1), the desert of Sinai (Ex., xix, 1), the desert of Sur (Ex., xv, 22), the desert of Sin (zin) (Num., xiii, 22), etc. Moreover, it is used of other districts, as in Western Palestine of the wilderne-ss of Juda (Judges, i, 16), and again in the east of the desert of Moab (Deut., ii, 8).
(2) naij? {'arahah), derived from the root any, 'arab, "to be arid", is another word for desert., which seems to express more than one of its natural charac- teristics. The word means a steppe, a desert plain; and it conveys the idea of a stretch of country, arid,
unproductive, and desolate. In poetic passages it is
used in parallelism with the word midbar. Thus Is.,
XXXV, 1: "The land that was desolate [midbar] and
impassable shall be glad, and the wilderness ['arabah]
shall rejoice"; cf. also Jer., xvii, 6, etc. Although
the Septuagint frequently renders the word by ep»)/xo9,
it often uses other translations, as yrj difCicra and fXos.
The Vulgate employs the words solitvdo, desertum.
Very frequently the word 'arabah has a mere geo-
graphical sense. Thus it refers to the strange de-
pression extending from the base of Mount Hermon,
through the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, to the
Gulf of Akabah. So, too, there are the Arboth Moab
(Num., xxii, 1), the Arboth Jericho (Jos., iv, 13), etc.,
referring to the desolate districts connected with these
places.
(3) nann (horbah), derived from the root ain, harab, "to lie waste", is translated in the Septuagint by the words epTj/wt. ^pi^fiucns, iprifita. In the Vulgate are found the renderings ruinm, solitudo, desolatio. A strange translation occurs in Ps. ci, 7. The word in the Greek is olKoiridov and in the Vulgate domidlium; and the pa.ssage in which the word occurs is rendered in the Douay version: "I am like a night raven in the house". St. Jerome, however, in his translation of the Psalm direct from the Hebrew employs the wortl solitudinum, which seems more correct: "I am like a night raven of the wastes". The lexicon of Gesenius gives as the first meaning of horbah, "dryness"; then as a second meaning, "a desolation", "ruins". A combination of these sen.ses seems to have been the reason why in the poetical books the word is used of the wilderness. The word conveys the idea of ruin or desolation caused by hostile lands, .as when God says to Jerusalem (Ez., v, 14): "I will m^ike thee desolate"; or when the Psalmist, referring to the punishment inflicted by Jehovah, says (Ps., ix, 7): "The enemy are consumed, left desolate for ever".
(4) pO'tJ" (jeshimon), derived from D\i^^,iasham, "to be desolate". It was looked upon as a place without water, thus Is., xliii, 19: "Behold I shall set up streams in the desert [jeshmwn]". It was a waste, a wilderness. In poetical passages it is used as a paral- lel to midbar, cf. Deut., xxxii, 10; Ps., Ixxviii, 40 (Heb.): "How often did ye provoke him in the wilder- ness [midbar], and grieve him in the desert [jeshi- mon]'!" Frequently it is used of the wilderness of the Exodus. Besides such uses of the word, it seems when used with the article often to have assumed the force of a proper name. In such cases it refers at times to the wilderness of the Exodus (cf. Ps., Ixxviii, 40; cvi, 14 — Heb.; etc.). Parts of the waste region about the Dead Sea are called the jeshimon; and to the north-east of the same sea there is a place called Beth-Jeshimoth (cf. Num., x.xxiii, 49), where the Is- raelites are said to have encainpefl at the end of the wanderings. These are the principal words used for desert in the Bible. There are, however, others less frequently used, only one or two of which can be men- tioned here: such .is inn (tohn), used in Gen., i, 2: "the earth was void". In Deut., xxxii, 10, it is used in parallelism with midbar, and in Ps. cvii, 40 it refers to the desert directly. Such also is ri'V (fii/'/Hh), which means, literally, dryness, but refers at times to the desert: so, n'V sSs ('«ref ^yydh), "a land of drought ", or "a desert" (Osee, ii, 5).
A word may be said here concerning the chief deserts referred to in the Bible. Perhaps the most interesting is that of Exodus. In the Pentateuch this tract is treated as a whole as "the desert", but, as a rule, special parts of it are referred to, as the desert of Sin, the desert of Sinai, the desert of ('ades, the desert of Pharan, etc. Books have been written to discuss the geography of this region. Suffice it to say that it comprises the groimd over which the Is- raelites travelled from their crossing of the Red Sea till their arrival in the Promised Land. We do not enter
