The Judean Desert

The Judean Desert is located between the Judean mountains and the Jordan Valley. Most of it is “a land of drought and waterless places” (Ezekiel 19:13, NASB), where little to no vegetation grows. It is described as “a desert, a land of deep gullies, a dry and barren land, a land where no one travels and no one lives” (Jeremiah 2:6, NLT).

Starting just east of the Mount of Olives, the terrain consists of rolling slopes with sparse vegetation and is rarely traveled. It descends from the Judean mountains at an elevation of over 900 meters to the Dead Sea, which is more than 400 meters below sea level. It is about 100 kilometers long from north to south and 20–25 kilometers wide from east to west. The landscape of the Judean Desert drops about 1,300 meters from west to east, beginning with a series of smooth, bare chalk hills and crisscrossing wadis and ravines. As it nears the Dead Sea, it gradually becomes steep canyons and culminates in jagged cliffs at the shore.

Located east of the central mountain watershed, the Judean Desert receives very little rain. Most of the rain clouds from the Mediterranean blow in from the west and drop their moisture on the western side of the watershed. The Judean Desert is extremely arid, with dry easterly winds and hot southeasterly winds from the desert that can cause plants to wither in a single day. Only during the rainy season are there occasional showers. For a few weeks during the rainy season, raging torrents fill the dry streambeds (wadis), and a few hardy plants grow, which are enough to graze drought-resistant goats and sheep. Today, the Judean Desert is sparsely populated, with only Bedouins who maintain an ancient nomadic way of life.

The Judean Desert is mentioned multiple times throughout the Bible. The descendants of Moses’ brother-in-law, the “Kenites,” lived in the desert of Judah (Judges 1:16). Young David was a shepherd in the Judean Desert (1 Samuel 17:28), and later he hid there from Saul and Absalom (1 Samuel 23:14, 24; 24:1; 2 Samuel 15:23). David described the Judean Desert as a “dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1). On the annual Day of Atonement, the “scapegoat for Azazel” was led from the Temple into the Judean Desert (Leviticus 16:10), where it would die, atoning for the people’s sins. The prophet Ezekiel had a vision of a stream flowing from the Temple, passing through this desert, and irrigating lush trees on its banks (Ezekiel 47:1-10). John the Baptist began his ministry in the Judean Desert north of the Dead Sea (Matthew 3:1-6).

Edited and compiled based on the Chinese Union Version of the Bible and a comprehensive biblical interpretation.