Luke 15:4

In the wilderness. Not a desert place, but uncultivated plains, pasturage. Note that the sheep are being pastured in the wilderness. A traveler, cited anonymously by Trench, says : "There are, indeed, some accursed patches, where scores of miles lie before you like a tawny Atlantic, one yellow wave rising before another. But far from infrequently there are regions of wild fertility where the earth shoots forth a jungle of aromatic shrubs" (" Parables ").