Bible Dictionary
DESOLATE
Desolate means lonely, forsaken, laid waste, comfortless, barren, or without inhabitants. Scripture uses the word for individuals, cities, lands, and conditions of spiritual or emotional abandonment.
Definition
Desolate means left alone, forlorn, comfortless, laid waste, without inhabitants, barren, childless, or unfruitful. The word can describe a person, a city, a land, a heart, or a condition of abandonment.
Biblical Usage
Scripture uses desolate for the lonely widow, the afflicted heart, wasted cities and lands, and barren or childless conditions. It may therefore express personal loneliness, national devastation, emotional distress, or lack of fruitfulness.
Historical Background
The word comes from Latin terms meaning intensely alone. Biblical translations represent several Hebrew and Greek words, including terms for being solitary, wasted, barren, deserted, or left alone.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>des'-o-lat (very frequently in the Old Testament for shamem, and its derivatives; less frequently, charebh, and its derivatives, and other words. In the New Testament it stands for eremos (Mt 23:38; Ac 1:20; Ga 4:27) eremoo (Re 17:16), and monoo (1Ti 5:5)): From Latin de, intens., solus, alone. Several shades of meaning can be distinguished:</p><p>(1) Its primary sense is "left lonely," "forlorn," e. g. Ps 25:16, "Have mercy upon me; for I am desolate" (Hebrew yachidh, "alone"); 1Ti 5:5, "she that is a widow indeed, and desolate" (Greek memonomene, "left alone").</p><p>(2) In the sense of "laid waste," "destitute of inhabitants," e. g. Jer 4:7, "to make thy land desolate, that thy cities be laid waste, without inhabitant."</p><p>(3) With the meaning "comfortless," "afflicted," e. g. Ps 143:4, "My heart within me is desolate."</p><p>(4) In the sense of "barren," "childless," "unfruitful," e. g. Job 15:34; Isa 49:21 (Hebrew galmudh).</p><p>D. Miall Edwards</p>