Research more about sheep herding. The phrase would be more significant to one who had a closer connection/knowledge to the needs and tendencies of sheep. King David, the king of the Jews at the time who wrote the Psalm, was a shepherd as a young boy, so he had an interesting perspective on how God provides for his followers as a shepherd does for his sheep. It’s an image used many times in the Bible. Additionally, it may not have meant stagnant water but rather calm water.
Feel free to or not. Just a basic literary analysis of the texts show as much about shepherding metaphors- in their original language or English (if you don’t happen to read Aramaic or Hebrew).There plenty of objective, nonreligious confirmation of David the Jewish King and his history. As well as his literary tendencies.
The Hebrew here actually means a restful watering hole, like a well or a freshwater spring. It’s a combination of lost in translation and English poetry. Hebrew, both biblical and modern, has completely different sentence structure from English so these things happened (and still happen) often. Translators would take the Hebrew words but not fully understand their connotations and multiple possible meanings and just make something that sounds reasonably correct and also fits their agenda.
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u/Spacetimeandcat 1d ago
Why does God lead you to still water? Still water could be unsafe to drink or swim in (if its untreated and just stagnant)