Miḏbār [מִדְבָּר]): From the Wilderness of Paganism to “Affliction” (anah [עָנָה]) to a Pit to Covenantal life in the Passover

[Reading Time: 7 minutes]

Note: The below writing was taken and expanded from this initial study on the superscription of Psalm 63:

“A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah” (Miḏbār)

miḏbār (מִדְבָּר)

217 occurrences in the OT

(of which we will only examine the first seven instances in the book of Genesis).

Etymology and Dictionary Definition

From dabar, in the sense of driving. As such, it can be translated as ‘pasture’ (i.e. an open field, where cattle are driven); by implication, it can also mean a ‘desert’ or ‘wilderness.’

In the LXX, this Superscriptions is in Greek “en te ereme” (ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ), from which we derive the English term eremitic. In carrying this phrase into the NT, we can note the same phrase appears in the Gospels, which state that before Christ’s entrance into His ministry, the “Holy Spirit drove Him (ekbállō) into the wilderness” (eis ten érēmon).

And a question we could ask from the life of David then from the life of Christ is

Whether this pathway “into the wilderness” is a pattern for us who are called to follow in the footsteps of our Savior?

Summary Synthesis

The opening occurence comes in the first war mentioned in Holy Scripture in reference to the pagan tribe of the Horites who live “in mount Seir…by the wilderness.” Their lands will ultimately be taken by Esau (the older brother, whose birthright is passed over for his younger twin, Jacob) yet, in the meantime, the wilderness will be dwelt in by Hagar and Ishmael (also an older brother whose inheritance will be passed over for the younger…).

Oppressed (anah) and driven into the wilderness by the very person that had ordered her to “go into” her husband, Hagar, now pregnant, confused, all alone, meets the Angel of the Lord “in the wilderness.”

A chapter before we had seen Abraham also alone and confused, struggling with the reality of God’s stated ‘Yes’ of a promised heir and the hardship of his experience of the ‘No.’ Yet, at the very same time, there JHWH also meets him. And as “a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him,” he experiences the Covenant. Utterly helpless, he hears the word of a great and mysterious prophecy:

“Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict (anah) them four hundred years.”

This affliction of bondage will, nevertheless, begin to form within the collective consciousness of the people of God an archetype:

Suffering, however unjust and however long, is inextricably tied to the fulfillment of the Lord’s divine promise.

That is to say, we come to know the reality of this promise, paradoxically, through the hardship of our experience (which, we remember derives from the two Greek words, ex—’out of’ and peirazo—‘testing’; for, again, however paradoxically it sounds, we can come to know the reality of the promise out of the ex-perience of our affliction (anah).

To return back to Hagar, helpless, confused, all alone, she gives a name to JHWH:

You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees;

And while Ishmael, who will “dwell in the wilderness,” will not ultimately bear the yoke of His all-seeing, suffering Savior, we see that Abraham’s heir will. Joseph, a prefiguration of the Messiah, comes to know, understand, ex-perience, divine deliverance in the very bonds of affliction.

Yet his anah will open up, not only for himself, but moreover, for God’s people for all time the Covenantal blessing of life through

“Christ our Passover

Who is sacrificed for us.”

Detailed Analysis

The wilderness of pagan lands

In the first occurrence in Genesis, miḏbār refers to the “wilderness” of Mt. Seir. With the context being the “Battle of Kings”—the first war mentioned in Holy Scripture—the text specifies that it involved the

“Horites in mount Seir unto El-paran, which is by the wilderness” (miḏbār, Gen 14:6) .

So that we are aware, according to the ISBE,

“the Hebrew Horite is the Khar of the Egyptian inscriptions, a name given to the whole of Southern Palestine and Edom as well as to the adjacent sea.”

Further, as to mount Seir, it represented,

“the alternative appellations [i.e. “mount Seir” and the “Land of Seir”] given to the mountainous tract which runs along the eastern side of the Arabah, occupied by the descendants of Esau, who succeeded the ancient Horites.”

That is to say, the “Horites in mount Seir…by the wilderness” occupied a mountainous, desert region. And their pagan lands, as we find later in Genesis, will ultimately be taken by the warring tribes of Esau.

But later, as we see in the next occurrence, the “wilderness” will become a place of habitation for Hagar and her son, Ishmael. Linking the two together, then, one could comment that before Esau loses his inheritance and is passed over as the oldest son, Ishmael, the first and oldest son of Abraham loses the Promised Land for a wilderness.

An oppressed (anah) slave girl driven into the wilderness…where the problems continued up to thois present day

The next four instances, then, speak of the pathway of Hagar when she is cast out of the presence of Abraham and Sarai following the pregnancy and birth of Ishmael. With Sarai overruling her husband in contradistinction to the clear promises of JHWH (Gen 12:2, 13:14-17, etc.), she arranges for their slave to become his concubine, thereby, as least in her mind, “securing” the promise through means of the flesh.

Yet, as soon as she had conceived, what do we find are the fruits of this carnal solution?

Immediately, problems begin (…which, we can say, have followed Israel even to the present day, from the Ancient Near East to the modern Middle East…).

Hagar, we are told, begins to “despise” Sarai (qalal, a word often used in the OT to express the idea of “cursing” [Gen 8:21, 12:3, etc.]). Then Sarai responds by “mistreating/dealing harshly with” Hagar (anah, 16:4-6).

Hagar, suffering, afflicted, with no home, now pregnant and all alone, flees from her earthly masters.

“Found…in the wilderness” and given a name and a promise

And yet to her the Lord Himself comes:

“And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness” (miḏbār, Gen 16:7).

“Found…in the wilderness.”

Is this many times where God finds us?

As Christ Himself was driven “into the wilderness,” are we sometimes led here too?

And here, do we, likewise, suffer the afflictions of being separated, being in need, being cast out by the very people that are given to care for us?

The text continues.

“The Angel of the Lord said to her,

‘Return to your mistress, and submit (anah) yourself under her hand’” (16:9).

That is to say, keep doing what you’re supposed to do; even if that means entering back into the affliction.

Then the Lord follows with an extraordinary (and, we might say, unexpected) promise:

“I will multiply your descendants exceedingly,

so that they shall not be counted for multitude” (16:10).

After then revealing to Hagar that this promise is already being fulfilled in her own affliction, God declares the name that she is to give to her son:

“Behold, you are with child,

And you shall bear a son.

You shall call his name Ishmael,

Because the Lord has heard (shāma) your cry of distress” (oniy,16:11).

When the Lord then prophesies of Ishmael’s pathway in life as a “wild man” whose “hand shall be against every man, And every man’s hand against him” (16:12), the narrative concludes with this word from Hagar, who herself gives JHWH a name.

You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees

Receiving the name of her son who is to be born, she then gives a name to God:

“Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her,

You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees;

For she said,

‘Have I also here seen Him who sees me?’” (15:13)

And with that, we will draw this study to a close. We will pass over how it was that her son, Ishmael’s life would be inextricably tied to the “wilderness” (The next two uses of miḏbār in Gen 20:20-21)…though not, as we would find, in a redemptive, Covenantal way (cf. Gal 4:21-31).

Nor will we mention the story of the patriarch Joseph, who was ironically delivered from death by his older brother, Ruben, when the remaining ten sought to kill him (37:18-21), only to be “cast into this pit that is in the wilderness” (miḏbār, 37:22). There noting that is in a “pit“ (bôr) that was “in the wilderness”…which later becomes an actual “dungeon” in Egypt (40:15; 41:14), where Joseph, a prefiguration of Christ, learns the statutes of JHWH.

And, bearing the yoke of the Messiah, Joseph not only is brought out of bondage himself, but moreover, becomes the person through whom his people would ultimately be delivered in the future Messiah.

Amen.

So may it be!