“And the woman fled into the wasteland where she had a place prepared by God, and there they would pasture her for 1290 days.” We said “the woman” is the Church; we do not doubt “the wasteland” to be a deserted place. And what is a deserted place if not an abandoned place, where no laborer has approached? For serpents and beasts, not human beings, are accustomed to dwell in wasteland. Therefore, the woman is said to flee “into” this “wasteland” — that is, into wicked human beings — where the way cannot be found — that is, Christ.
And so he says that the Church receives [power] from God in “the wasteland” [for] what should be trampled among “serpents” and vipers and “all the strength” of Satan. (cf. Lk. 10:19) For since Israel was pastured and governed in the wasteland among this kind of serpents that were destroyed by the serpent cross, (cf. Num. 21:6) it is the likeness of all the Church; for they were all our figures. (cf. 1 Cor. 10:6) Besides, David joined the figure which had preceded [him] “into the wasteland” with his own character, which is carried into the whole world. For so he says: “Let those say it who have been redeemed by the Lord, whom He has redeemed from the hand of enemies; those gathered out of the regions from the rising of the Sun until the setting, from the north and the sea; they wandered in the deserted place, with dryness on the way.” (Ps. 106:2-4, VL) And he describes the whole Church – that is, Israel, which is those seeing God — in “the wasteland.”
Truly, Jeremiah says wicked humans are “the wasteland;” ‘“Cursed,” he says, “is the man who has hope in a human being, and strengthens the flesh of his arm, and whose heart shall leave the Lord. And he shall be like a tamarisk* in the deserted place, and he shall not see when good shall come, and he shall dwell among the wicked ones,’Aug in a deserted land and in a salt land in which none have dwelled.” (Jer. 17:5-6, VL) Therefore, you see the unjust ones are the deserted land in which God is said not to dwell. “The woman” — that is, the Church — dwells in this land, and there she is pastured on heavenly teaching until the 1290 days are finished — that is, from the Lord’s First Coming to His Second Coming; until she is delivered from the unjust ones.
* Tamarisk: an evergreen shrub that grows in saline and desert soils. It is found in Israel.
Aug St. Augustine of Hippo, Contra Faustum Manichaeum, lib. 13, c. 8. (PL 42, 286, 35-40.)
Beatus of Liebana's Bloggentary: Commentary on the Apocalypse 
Explanatio: Rev. 12:6
“And the woman fled into the wasteland where she had a place prepared by God, and there they would pasture her for 1290 days.” We said “the woman” is the Church; we do not doubt “the wasteland” to be a deserted place. And what is a deserted place if not an abandoned place, where no laborer has approached? For serpents and beasts, not human beings, are accustomed to dwell in wasteland. Therefore, the woman is said to flee “into” this “wasteland” — that is, into wicked human beings — where the way cannot be found — that is, Christ.
And so he says that the Church receives [power] from God in “the wasteland” [for] what should be trampled among “serpents” and vipers and “all the strength” of Satan. (cf. Lk. 10:19) For since Israel was pastured and governed in the wasteland among this kind of serpents that were destroyed by the serpent cross, (cf. Num. 21:6) it is the likeness of all the Church; for they were all our figures. (cf. 1 Cor. 10:6) Besides, David joined the figure which had preceded [him] “into the wasteland” with his own character, which is carried into the whole world. For so he says: “Let those say it who have been redeemed by the Lord, whom He has redeemed from the hand of enemies; those gathered out of the regions from the rising of the Sun until the setting, from the north and the sea; they wandered in the deserted place, with dryness on the way.” (Ps. 106:2-4, VL) And he describes the whole Church – that is, Israel, which is those seeing God — in “the wasteland.”
Truly, Jeremiah says wicked humans are “the wasteland;” ‘“Cursed,” he says, “is the man who has hope in a human being, and strengthens the flesh of his arm, and whose heart shall leave the Lord. And he shall be like a tamarisk* in the deserted place, and he shall not see when good shall come, and he shall dwell among the wicked ones,’Aug in a deserted land and in a salt land in which none have dwelled.” (Jer. 17:5-6, VL) Therefore, you see the unjust ones are the deserted land in which God is said not to dwell. “The woman” — that is, the Church — dwells in this land, and there she is pastured on heavenly teaching until the 1290 days are finished — that is, from the Lord’s First Coming to His Second Coming; until she is delivered from the unjust ones.
* Tamarisk: an evergreen shrub that grows in saline and desert soils. It is found in Israel.
Aug St. Augustine of Hippo, Contra Faustum Manichaeum, lib. 13, c. 8. (PL 42, 286, 35-40.)
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