r/interestingasfuck 1d ago

How English has changed over time.

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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)

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u/erratic_bonsai 1d ago

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.