desert / wilderness

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The Greek, Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “desert” or “wilderness” in English is translated in a number of ways:

  • Mairasi: “a place where noisiness is cut off (or: stops)” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Muna: pandaso bhalano pr “big barren-field” (source: René van den Berg)
  • Wantoat: “cold windy place where no one lives” (source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2-20)
  • Balinese: “barren field” (source: J.L. Swellengrebel in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 75ff. )
  • Wantoat: “uninhabited place” (source: Holzhausen 1991, p. 38)
  • Umiray Dumaget Agta: “where no people dwell” (source: Larson 1998, p. 98)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “where no house is” (source: James Lauriault in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 32ff. )
  • Amri Karbi: “waterless region/place” (source: Philippova 2021, p. 368)
  • Ocotlán Zapotec: “large empty place” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Pa’o Karen: “jungle” (denoting a place without any towns, villages and tilled fields) (source: Gordon Luce in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 153f. )
  • Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
  • Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Cherokee: inage or “far away downstream” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 16)
  • Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Adioukrou: loj or “savannah” — “land that is not village, nor forest, nor field (source: Hill 2006)
  • Morelos Nahuatl: “where nobody lives”

    • Isthmus Mixe: “dry country” (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place,” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).

See also wilderness and desolate wilderness.

complete verse (Deuteronomy 8:16)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 8:16:

  • Kupsabiny: “and he fed you manna, food which your grandfathers never knew about. He did all those things wanting to pull you down and test you so that he could do good things for you later.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Then later, in the wilderness, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go to do you good, He fed you with manna, [a food] your ancestors did not know.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “There in the desolate-place, he was-giving you (plur.) manna — a food that your (plur.) ancestors have- not -known. The LORD did this to humble you (plur.) and to test you (plur.) so-that some-time-later your (plur.) situation/well-being will-become well/good.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Do not forget that in that desert he gave your ancestors manna to eat, food that they had never eaten before. He caused them to have/experience many problems/difficulties, because he wanted them to realize that they needed to trust him and not themselves. And he wanted to test them, to find out whether they intended to obey him, in order that when those difficulties ended, he would do many good things for them.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 8:16

Fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know: see verse 8.

He might humble you and test you: see verse 2.

To do you good in the end: the testing was followed by blessings. At the end of it all God rewarded them with good things. Good News Translation has “so that in the end he could bless you with good things”; we may also say “so that in the end he could give you all kinds of good things.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .