'Wilderness' signifies something with little life in it, as described in the internal sense in Luke 1:80 'Wilderness' signifies somewhere there is no good because there is no truth. 'Wilderness,' as in Jeremiah 23:10, signifies the Word when it is adulterated.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 1927)

147. "'To him I will give power over the nations.'" This symbolically means that they will overcome the evils in themselves that come from hell.

Nations in the Word mean people impelled by good, and in an opposite sense, people impelled by evil, thus abstractly goods or evils themselves, as may be seen in no. 483 below. Here, therefore, to give power over the nations means, symbolically, to make it possible for the people to overcome the evils in themselves that come from hell.