What is the context?
The announced famine now concerns hearing the Lord’s words. Searching across the land will not find what has been refused.
The image follows the rejection of prophetic speech and the endurance of corrupt worship. It concerns the withdrawal of the word, not merely the inconvenience of travel.
Young people faint and those sworn to false religious securities fall. Physical vigor and confident formulas do not produce the needed hearing.
The passage should not be made into a diagnosis of every dry period in a believer’s prayer or a reason to declare Scripture unavailable everywhere today.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley reads the wandering as a search for a prophet or preacher and the oaths through the idols of Dan and Beersheba. His proposed sea-to-sea route is not needed to hear the image of fruitless searching.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.
Where can I study this further?
No deeper study linked yet.