(1) On the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, יהוה spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, saying:

(7) A messenger of יהוה found [Hagar] by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the road to Shur,

(1) Now Moses, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, drove the flock into the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

(15) who led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its seraph serpents and scorpions, a parched land with no water in it, who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock;(16) who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your ancestors had never known, in order to test you by hardships only to benefit you in the end—

(61) In the wilderness: Beth-arabah, Middin, Secacah, (62) Nibshan, Ir-melah, and En-gedi: 6 towns, with their villages.

(14) David was staying in the strongholds of the wilderness [of Judah];^-a he stayed in the hill country, in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul searched for him constantly, but God did not deliver him into his hands.

(25) Who cut a channel for the torrents

And a path for the thunderstorms,

(26) To rain down on uninhabited land,

On the wilderness where no human is.

(33) God turns the rivers into a wilderness,

springs of water into thirsty land,

(34) fruitful land into a salt marsh,

because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.(35) God turns the wilderness into pools,

parched land into springs of water.

(7)"And God spoke to Moses in the Sinai Wilderness" (Numbers 1:1). Why the Sinai Wilderness? From here the sages taught that the Torah was given through three things: fire, water, and wilderness. How do we know it was given through fire? From Exodus 19:18: "And Mount Sinai was all in smoke as God had come down upon it in fire." How do we know it was given through water? As it says in Judges 5:4, "The heavens dripped and the clouds dripped water [at Sinai]." How do we know it was given through wilderness? [As it says above,] "And God spoke to Moses in the Sinai Wilderness." And why was the Torah given through these three things? Just as they are free to all the inhabitants of the world, so too are the words of Torah free to them, as it says in Isaiah 55:1, "Oh, all who are thirsty, come for water... [you who have no money]." Another explanation: "And God spoke to Moses in the Sinai Wilderness" — Anyone who does not make themselves ownerless like the wilderness cannot acquire the wisdom and the Torah. Therefore it says, "the Sinai Wilderness."

“And he was buried in his own house, in the wilderness” (I Kings 2:34). Is that to say that Yoav’s house was a wilderness? Rav Yehuda says that Rav says:like the wilderness; just as the wilderness isopen to all, so too, Yoav’s house was open to all. Alternatively,like the wilderness; just as the wilderness is clean of theft and sexual immorality, so too Yoav's house was clean of theft and sexual immorality...

(R. Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk)

The Torah only stands firm in one who makes himself like a midbar hefkerbefore those who are poor of mind and rich of mind, and he doesn’t think of himself as better than his friend. On the contrary, he should be completely nullified before his friend, and it is through this that they become united and bound up one with the other.

..."And Moses led the flock to the wilderness"(Exod. 3:1). Rabbi Yehoshua said, Why was he in pursuit of the wilderness? He saw that Israel would be raised up from the wilderness, as it is said: Who is this who rises up from the wilderness? (Songs 3:6). They had the manna from the wilderness, and the quails, and the well, and the Tabernacle, and the Divine Presence; priesthood, kingship, and the clouds of glory.

Another interpretation. The Holy Blessed One said to Moses, in the future you will bring Israel out of Egypt through the merit of the one that I spoke to between the parts - namely Abraham. And wilderness (midbar) means only speech (dibur). As it is said, Your lips are like a scarlet thread, your mouth [midbarech] is lovely (Songs 4:3).

(3) Your lips are like a crimson thread,
Your mouth is lovely.
Your brow behind your veil
[Gleams] like a pomegranate split open.

(1) I am a rose of Sharon,
A lily of the valleys.
(2) Like a lily among thorns,
So is my darling among the maidens.

Rabbi Berekhya said: This verse, the wilderness said it. The wilderness said: ‘I am the wilderness, yet I am beloved, as all the good in the world is shrouded in me, as it is stated: “I will place in the wilderness cedar, acacia…” (Isaiah 41:19). The Holy Blessed One gave them to me so they would be protected in me. When the Holy Blessed One asks me for them, I will return the deposit with nothing lacking. I generate good deeds and sing songs before God,’ as it is stated: “The wilderness and wasteland will be glad” (Isaiah 35:1)...