17 Bible Verses about Wilderness

Moses led Israel onward from the Sea of Suf, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.

They traveled from before Hahiroth, and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness: and they went three days' journey in the wilderness of Etham, and encamped in Marah.

And there he came to a cave and lodged there; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He said, "I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of Hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD." Behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake. read more.
After the earthquake a fire passed; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. It was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. Behold, a voice came to him, and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He said, "I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of Hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." The LORD said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. You shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah to be prophet in your place. It shall happen, that he who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and he who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. Yet will I leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him." So he departed there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing, with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed over to him, and cast his mantle on him. He left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, "Let me please kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you." He said to him, "Go back again; for what have I done to you?" He returned from following him, and took the yoke of oxen, and killed them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave to the people, and they ate. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and served him.

The LORD said, "I have pardoned according to your word: but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD; because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice; read more.
surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it: but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land into which he went; and his seed shall possess it. Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: tomorrow turn, and go into the wilderness by the way to the Sea of Suf." The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Tell them, 'As I live, says the LORD, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me, surely you shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, that you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, you will bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you will know my alienation.' I, the LORD, have spoken, surely this will I do to all this evil congregation, who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die." The men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land, even those men who brought up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before the LORD. But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land. Moses told these words to all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.

It happened in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, that the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the testimony. The children of Israel went forward according to their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud abode in the wilderness of Paran. They first went forward according to the commandment of the LORD by Moses. read more.
First, the standard of the camp of the children of Judah went forward according to their armies. Nahshon the son of Amminadab was over his army. Nethanel the son of Zuar was over the army of the tribe of the children of Issachar. Eliab the son of Helon was over the army of the tribe of the children of Zebulun. The tabernacle was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who bore the tabernacle, went forward. The standard of the camp of Reuben went forward according to their armies. Elizur the son of Shedeur was over his army. Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai was over the army of the tribe of the children of Simeon. Eliasaph the son of Deuel was over the army of the tribe of the children of Gad. The Kohathites set forward, bearing the sanctuary. The others set up the tabernacle before they arrived. The standard of the camp of the children of Ephraim set forward according to their armies. Elishama the son of Ammihud was over his army. Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur was over the army of the tribe of the children of Manasseh. Abidan the son of Gideoni was over the army of the tribe of the children of Benjamin. The standard of the camp of the children of Dan, which was the rearward of all the camps, set forward according to their armies. Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai was over his army. Pagiel the son of Ochran was over the army of the tribe of the children of Asher. Ahira the son of Enan was over the army of the tribe of the children of Naphtali. Thus were the travels of the children of Israel according to their armies; and they went forward. Moses said to Hobab, the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, "We are journeying to the place of which the LORD said, 'I will give it to you.' Come with us, and we will treat you well; for the LORD has spoken good concerning Israel." He said to him, "I will not go; but I will depart to my own land, and to my relatives." He said, "Do not leave us, please; because you know how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and you can be our eyes. And it shall be, if you go with us, that it shall be that whatever good the LORD does to us, we will do the same to you." They set forward from the Mount of the LORD three days' journey. The ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them three days' journey, to seek out a resting place for them. The cloud of the LORD was over them by day, when they set forward from the camp. It happened, when the ark went forward, that Moses said, "Rise up, LORD, and let your enemies be scattered. Let those who hate you flee before you." When it rested, he said, "Return, LORD, to the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel."

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And immediately the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals; and the angels were serving him.

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness

He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness. He surrounded him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye.