Topical Bible: Wastes

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Topical Encyclopedia

In biblical literature, the term "wastes" often refers to desolate or uninhabited regions, symbolizing both physical and spiritual desolation. These areas are frequently depicted as places of judgment, testing, or purification, and they serve as a backdrop for significant events in the biblical narrative.

Old Testament References

The concept of "wastes" is prevalent in the Old Testament, where it is often associated with the wilderness or desert regions. In Deuteronomy 32:10, the wilderness is described as a "howling waste" where God found and cared for Israel: "He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, instructed him, and guarded him as the apple of His eye" . This passage highlights God's providential care and guidance in the midst of desolation.

The prophetic books frequently use the imagery of wastes to convey the consequences of sin and disobedience. Isaiah 64:10-11 laments the desolation of Zion: "Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins" . Here, the physical desolation of the land reflects the spiritual desolation of the people.

New Testament Context

While the New Testament does not frequently use the term "wastes," the concept is present in the wilderness experiences of key figures. Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, as described in Matthew 4:1-11, serves as a period of testing and preparation. The wilderness, though not explicitly called a "waste," functions as a place of spiritual confrontation and victory over temptation.

Theological Significance

Theologically, wastes symbolize the consequences of sin and the need for divine intervention. They serve as a reminder of humanity's dependence on God for restoration and renewal. The transformation of wastelands into fruitful regions is a recurring theme, symbolizing hope and redemption. Isaiah 35:1-2 prophesies such a transformation: "The wilderness and the land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose. It will bloom abundantly and even rejoice with joy and singing" .

Spiritual Application

In a spiritual sense, the concept of wastes can be applied to the believer's life. Times of spiritual dryness or desolation can be seen as opportunities for growth and reliance on God's provision. Just as God led Israel through the wilderness, He guides believers through their own spiritual deserts, offering hope and renewal.

Conclusion

The biblical portrayal of wastes serves as a powerful metaphor for both judgment and redemption. It underscores the reality of sin's consequences while simultaneously pointing to God's redemptive power to transform desolation into abundance. Through the lens of Scripture, wastes are not merely barren lands but are imbued with profound spiritual significance.

Strong's Hebrew

2788. charer -- a parched place
... 2787, 2788. charer. 2789 . a parched place. Transliteration: charer Phonetic
Spelling: (khaw-rare') Short Definition: wastes. Word ...
/hebrew/2788.htm - 6k

6. abad -- to perish
... 1), perish (61), perished (16), perishes (7), perishing (2), ruined (4), surely
perish (3), take (1), utterly destroy (1), wandering (1), wastes (1), wiped (1 ...
/hebrew/6.htm - 6k

3615. kalah -- to be complete, at an end, finished, accomplished ...
... 1), put an end (2), ravage (1), settled (1), spend (3), spent (5), terminate (1),
use (1), used (1), vanish (2), vanishes (1), waste away (1), wastes away (1 ...
/hebrew/3615.htm - 7k

4549. masas -- to dissolve, melt
... dissolve, melt NASB Word Usage completely lose heart (1), drenched (1), dropped
(1), melt (7), melt away (1), melted (5), melting (1), melts (1), wastes away (1 ...
/hebrew/4549.htm - 6k

2723. chorbah -- waste, desolation, ruin
... desolation, ruin NASB Word Usage deserts (1), desolation (4), desolations (1), ruin
(6), ruined homes (1), ruins (11), waste (7), waste places (10), wastes (1 ...
/hebrew/2723.htm - 6k

Library

Song 1. The Sluggard.
... Thus he wastes half his days and his hours without number; ... And his money still wastes,
till he starves or he begs. I made him a visit, still hoping to find. ...
//christianbookshelf.org/watts/divine and moral songs/song 1 the sluggard.htm

Four Points of Economy.
... other Gospels, and when a commentator has given his annotations on Matthew, and
comes to the same facts recorded in Mark, or Luke, or John, he wastes his space ...
/.../christianbookshelf.org/mcgarvey/the four-fold gospel/four points of economy.htm

The Seventh Commandment
... It brings into a consumption. Uncleanness turns the body into a hospital, it wastes
the radical moisture, rots the skull, and eats the beauty of the face. ...
/.../watson/the ten commandments/2 7 the seventh commandment.htm

The Five Thousand Fed.
... God does not allow wastefulness. Nature wastes nothing, not an ounce of matter. ... It
is by wasting the fragments that the great wastes occur. (John 6:13). 13. ...
/.../johnson/the new testament commentary vol iii john/the five thousand fed.htm

In the Desert
... He caught up Anubis, who had bounded beside him during the entire time, and
running back to Rachel, turned into the limestone wastes. ...
//christianbookshelf.org/miller/the yoke/chapter xix in the desert.htm

The House of Zacharias.
... Full often they would climb the heights and look out over the desert wastes to descry
the advent of the Mighty One, coming from Edom, with his garments stained ...
//christianbookshelf.org/meyer/john the baptist/ii the house of zacharias.htm

Eucharistic Doctrine.
... same body and the same blood with Him [295] :" and "this Bread does not pass into
the belly, and is not cast out into the draught [296] ," but wastes away as ...
/.../cyril/lectures of s cyril of jerusalem/chapter vii eucharistic doctrine.htm

Providence
... siege of one single town; and think how many stomachs must be the emptier, how many
backs the barer, for this one war; and then see how man wastes God's gifts ...
/.../kingsley/sermons for the times/sermon xiii providence.htm

Profit and Loss
... gratifying to his fallen nature; or else, why is it that the politician seeks for
it so continually, and toils for it days without number, and wastes the sap ...
/.../spurgeon/spurgeons sermons volume 2 1856/profit and loss.htm

A Heavenly Pattern for Our Earthly Life
... Our God wastes no consecrated life: he has made nothing in vain: he ordains all
things according to the counsel of his will, and that counsel never errs. ...
/.../spurgeon/spurgeons sermons volume 30 1884/a heavenly pattern for our.htm

Thesaurus

Wastes (33 Occurrences)
... Multi-Version Concordance Wastes (33 Occurrences). ... (See NIV). Job 3:14 With kings
and counsellors of earth, These building wastes for themselves. (YLT). ...
/w/wastes.htm - 16k

Ruins (84 Occurrences)
... Isaiah 49:19 Because thy wastes, and thy desolate places, And the land of thy ruins,
Surely now are straitened because of inhabitants, And far off have been ...
/r/ruins.htm - 31k

Wasteth (10 Occurrences)

/w/wasteth.htm - 8k

Builded (65 Occurrences)
... Ezekiel 36:10 And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all
of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded ...
/b/builded.htm - 27k

Quickening (7 Occurrences)
... us, and stretcheth out unto us kindness before the kings of Persia, to give to us
a quickening to lift up the house of our God, and to cause its wastes to cease ...
/q/quickening.htm - 9k

Karkor (1 Occurrence)
... Easton's Bible Dictionary Foundation, a place in the open desert wastes on the east
of Jordan (Judges 8:10), not far beyond Succoth and Penuel, to the south. ...
/k/karkor.htm - 7k

Nebuchadrez'zar (31 Occurrences)
... and against all these nations round about, and have devoted them, and appointed
them for an astonishment, and for a hissing, and for wastes age-during. ...
/n/nebuchadrez'zar.htm - 16k

Noonday (13 Occurrences)
... (ASV). Psalms 91:6 nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the
destruction that wastes at noonday. (WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY RSV). ...
/n/noonday.htm - 10k

Lays (30 Occurrences)
... storehouses. (WEB NAS). Psalms 91:6 nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
nor of the destruction that wastes at noonday. (See NAS). ...
/l/lays.htm - 13k

Glutton (4 Occurrences)
... (Deuteronomy 21:20), Hebrews zolel, from a word meaning "to shake out," "to squander;"
and hence one who is prodigal, who wastes his means by indulgence. ...
/g/glutton.htm - 10k

Resources

What should Christian parents do if they have a prodigal son (or daughter)? | GotQuestions.org

What does the Bible say about laziness? | GotQuestions.org

What does the Bible mean when it refers to a remnant? | GotQuestions.org

Bible Concordance • Bible Dictionary • Bible Encyclopedia • Topical Bible • Bible Thesuarus

Concordance

Wastes (33 Occurrences)

Numbers 5:22
And this water of the curse will go into your body, causing disease of your stomach and wasting of your legs: and the woman will say, So be it.
(See NIV)

Job 3:14
With kings and counsellors of earth, These building wastes for themselves.
(YLT)

Job 13:28
though I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
(See RSV NIV)

Job 14:11
As the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes and dries up,
(WEB RSV)

Job 33:21
His flesh is so wasted away, that it may not be seen, and his bones. ...
(See NAS NIV)

Psalms 6:7
My eye wastes away because of grief. It grows old because of all my adversaries.
(WEB RSV)

Psalms 91:6
nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that wastes at noonday.
(WEB RSV)

Psalms 107:4
They were wandering in the waste places; they saw no way to a resting-place.
(See RSV)

Psalms 107:40
He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the waste, where there is no way.
(See RSV)

Proverbs 29:3
Whoso loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father; but he that keepeth company with harlots wasteth his substance.
(See NAS)

Isaiah 10:18
And the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, he will consume both soul and body; and it shall be as when a sick man wasteth away.
(See NAS RSV NIV)

Isaiah 33:9
The earth is sorrowing and wasting away; Lebanon is put to shame and has become waste; Sharon is like the Arabah; and in Bashan and Carmel the leaves are falling.
(See NIV)

Isaiah 44:26
Confirming the word of His servant, The counsel of His messengers it perfecteth, Who is saying of Jerusalem, She is inhabited, And of cities of Judah, They shall be built, and her wastes I raise up,
(YLT)

Isaiah 49:19
Because thy wastes, and thy desolate places, And the land of thy ruins, Surely now are straitened because of inhabitants, And far off have been those consuming thee.
(YLT)

Isaiah 51:3
For Jehovah hath comforted Zion, He hath comforted all her wastes, And He setteth her wilderness as Eden, And her desert as a garden of Jehovah, Joy, yea, gladness is found in her, Confession, and the voice of song.
(YLT)

Isaiah 52:9
Break forth, sing together, O wastes of Jerusalem, For Jehovah hath comforted His people, He hath redeemed Jerusalem.
(YLT)

Isaiah 58:12
And they have built out of thee the wastes of old, The foundations of many generations thou raisest up, And one calleth thee, 'Repairer of the breach, Restorer of paths to rest in.'
(YLT)

Isaiah 61:4
They shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT)

Jeremiah 17:6
For he will be like the brushwood in the upland, and will not see when good comes; but his living-place will be in the dry places in the waste land, in a salt and unpeopled land.
(See NAS)

Jeremiah 25:9
behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith Jehovah, and I will send to Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual wastes.
(DBY YLT)

Jeremiah 49:13
For I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, that Bozrah shall become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all its cities shall be perpetual wastes.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT RSV)

Ezekiel 13:4
As foxes in the wastes, Thy prophets, O Israel, have been.
(YLT)

Ezekiel 26:20
And I have caused thee to go down, With those going down to the pit, Unto the people of old, And I have caused thee to dwell in the land, The lower parts -- in wastes of old, With those going down to the pit, So that thou art not inhabited, And I have given beauty in the land of the living.
(YLT)

Ezekiel 26:21
Wastes I do make thee, and thou art not, And thou art sought, and art not found any more -- to the age, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah!'
(YLT)

Ezekiel 27:36
Merchants among the peoples have shrieked for thee, Wastes thou hast been, and thou art not -- to the age!'
(YLT)

Ezekiel 28:19
All knowing thee among the peoples Have been astonished at thee, Wastes thou hast been, and thou art not -- to the age.'
(YLT)

Ezekiel 29:10
Therefore, lo, I 'am' against thee, and against thy floods, And have given the land of Egypt for wastes, A waste, a desolation, from Migdol to Syene, And unto the border of Cush.
(YLT)

Ezekiel 33:24
Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.
(KJV WBS YLT)

Ezekiel 33:27
Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.
(KJV WBS YLT)

Ezekiel 36:4
therefore, you mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which are become a prey and derision to the residue of the nations that are all around;
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV)

Ezekiel 36:10
And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded:
(KJV WBS YLT)

Ezekiel 36:33
Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded.
(KJV WBS YLT)

Daniel 9:2
in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, have understood by books the number of the years, (in that a word of Jehovah hath been unto Jeremiah the prophet,) concerning the fulfilling of the wastes of Jerusalem -- seventy years;
(YLT)

Subtopics

Wastes

Related Terms

Wastes (33 Occurrences)

Vexation (36 Occurrences)

Yieldeth (8 Occurrences)

Noon-day (8 Occurrences)

Oppressors (31 Occurrences)

Languisheth (10 Occurrences)

Forests (12 Occurrences)

Recede (3 Occurrences)

Drained (38 Occurrences)