Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no path to a city in which to dwell.
Parallel translations
- WEB They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way. They found no city to live in.
- KJV They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.
- NKJV They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way; They found no city to dwell in.
- NASB ¶They wandered in the wilderness in a desert region; They did not find a way to an inhabited city.
- NLT Some wandered in the wilderness, lost and homeless.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Some wandered lost in a desert wilderness, finding no city to live in.
Overview
The first of four pictures of distress portrays travelers lost and homeless in a barren waste, recalling Israel's wilderness experience. It depicts the helplessness of those without refuge or settled home. Spiritually it pictures the lostness of humanity apart from God, who alone can lead the wandering to a true and lasting home in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Deut 32:10He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.
- Ezek 34:6My flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill. They were scattered over the face of all the earth, with no one to search for them or seek them out.’
- Ezek 34:12As a shepherd looks for his scattered sheep when he is among the flock, so I will look for My flock. I will rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.
- Num 14:33Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.
- Heb 11:38The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and hid in caves and holes in the ground.
- Job 12:24He deprives the earth’s leaders of reason and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
- Gen 21:14–16Early in the morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a skin of water, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her away with the boy. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.
- Ps 107:40He pours out contempt on the nobles and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
- Deut 8:15He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.
- Num 32:13The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation who had done evil in His sight was gone.
- Rev 12:6And the woman fled into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place for her to be nourished for 1,260 days.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 107:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.