Joshua 12:8

In the wilderness and in the south country These are joined together because the wilderness was southerly, in the hottest and driest part of the land: but we are not to suppose that the wilderness was a country without people, but only such as was thinly inhabited, in comparison with other parts of the land: for we read of houses and towns in the wilderness, 1 Kings 11:34; 1 Kings 9:18.