¶They wandered in the wilderness in a desert region; They did not find a way to an inhabited city.
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.
- BSB Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no path to a city in which to dwell.
- NKJV They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way; They found no city to dwell in.
- 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 the waste howling wilderness. He surrounded him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye.
- Ezek 34:6My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill: yes, my sheep were scattered on all the surface of the earth; and there was no one who searched or sought.
- Ezek 34:12As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
- Num 14:33Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies are consumed in the wilderness.
- Heb 11:38(of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth.
- Job 12:24He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
- Gen 21:14–16Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder; and gave her the child, and sent her away. She departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
- Ps 107:40He pours contempt on princes, and causes them to wander in a trackless waste.
- Deut 8:15who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with venomous snakes and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water; who poured water for you out of the rock of flint;
- Num 32:13Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he made them wander back and forth in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, who had done evil in Yahweh’s sight, was consumed.
- Rev 12:6The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that there they may nourish her one thousand two hundred sixty 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.