desert / wilderness

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The Greek, Hebrew 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)
  • 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)
  • 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)

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 (Leviticus 16:22)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 16:22:

  • Kupsabiny: “The he-goat shall go with all their sins to the wilderness and it shall be abandoned there.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “In this way that goat will carry all their sins away. That man must release it in the wilderness.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “So the goat will-carry all the sins of the Israelinhon if it set-free by man in the desolate-place.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “It is as though the goat will carry away into the desert the guilt for the sins of all the people.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Leviticus 16:22

All their iniquities: or “the punishment for all their guilt” (see also verses 16 and 21).

To a solitary land: literally “to a land of separation (or, cutting).” The Hebrew word for “separation” or “cutting” used here is found nowhere else in the Old Testament, so its origin and exact meaning are uncertain. It has been understood in different ways by scholars. New Jerusalem Bible translates “an inaccessible region”; New American Bible “an isolated region”; New Jerusalem Bible “some desolate place.” In this case it is synonymous with the word wilderness, which has as its main component of meaning the fact that no human beings live in the area. Good News Translation has, in fact, shortened and combined the two parts of this verse into a single statement, taking a solitary land and the wilderness together.

He shall let the goat go: this provides added support for the argument that the animal is led away rather than driven from the camp. Both Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and Good News Translation have omitted this detail. Some versions take this last sentence as a temporal clause introducing the following verse. It is set off as a new paragraph in Bible en français courant and translated “As soon as the goat has been sent into the desert….”

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .