Albert Barnes Commentary Hebrews 11:38

"(of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth." — Hebrews 11:38 (ASV)

Of whom the world was not worthy. The world was so wicked that it had no claim that such holy men should live in it. These poor, despised, and persecuted men, living as outcasts and wanderers, were of a character far elevated above the world. This is a most beautiful expression. It is at once a statement of their eminent holiness, and of the wickedness of the rest of mankind.

They wandered in deserts, etc. On the scriptural meaning of the word desert or wilderness, see Barnes on Matthew 3:1. This wandering is a description of persons driven away from their homes and wandering about from place to place to procure a scanty subsistence. Compare 1 Maccabees 1:53; 2 Maccabees 5:27; 2 Maccabees 6:7. The instances mentioned in the Books of Maccabees are so relevant that there is no impropriety in supposing that Paul referred to some such cases, if not these very cases. As there is no doubt about their historic truth, there was no impropriety in referring to them, though they are not mentioned in the canonical books of Scripture. One of those cases may be referred to as strikingly illustrating what is said here: "But Judas Maccabeus, with nine others, or thereabout, withdrew into the wilderness, and lived in the mountains in the manner of beasts, with his company, who fed on herbs continually, lest they should be partakers of the pollution." .