The Lord commanded Jared and his brother that "they should go forth into the wilderness, yea, into that quarter where there never had man been" (Ether 2:5).
According to Randall Spackman, the "wilderness" or "quarter where there never had man been," into which the Jaredites moved from the valley of Nimrod, may be the vast mountainous region around Lake Van and Mount Ararat. This region had been populated prior to 2000 B.C., but the area was basically deserted for about 500 years. Perhaps this depopulation was connected with the tremendous climatic changes that resulted in the diminished flows of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and the warm sub-Boreal period across all of Asia. . . . The phrase "quarter where there never had man been," as a description of this area, may be reflected by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser I (1115-1077 B.C.) who campaigned in these Armenian highlands. His annals record: "By toilsome paths and arduous passes, through which no king before me had gone, by hidden tracks and unmade roads I led my armies . . ." [Randall P. Spackman, The Jaredite Journey to America, p. 35, unpublished]
The Book of Mormon student might wonder if the definition of the term "wilderness" here in Ether 2:5 gives the reader any help with understanding that term as it is used in other parts of the Book of Mormon story. If we were to go strictly by the text, then the term "wilderness" would apparently refer to a region where "there never had man been." However, by placing the story in a real-world setting, the term "wilderness" might also imply a mountainous region. [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]