hardship

Men at ease have contempt for misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping. The tents of marauders are undisturbed, and those who provoke God are secure — those who carry their god in their hands. "But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.

Chapter and Verse

We should be very wary of the referential numbering system that we use in our Bibles. Nothing in modern history has done more to skew the message, than the idea that I can take the passage between two numbers as a whole idea, quote it to support my thesis, bang-bada boom, and I just proved that God approves of my thinking. This is nothing short of Balaam's error, to conjure God for the purpose of blessing that which stands in opposition to Him.

The Bible itself cannot stand as a lone document. The context etc... makes it necessary to understand the broader culture and all the events of the past several thousands of years. The fact is however even here, there is the very real problem that you can only read into the text that which you "think" you see, and so you still have an eisegesis of sorts; notwithstanding the impossibility of anyone really having a grasp on the entirety of human history and literature.

The fact is this should drive us to our knees with a sense of Helplessness. It is Helplessness that produces a plea. The plea results in hope, and the hope in faith, that produces action, despite the inability of reason to accomplish anything substantive on its own.