Still

STILL [ISBE]

STILL - stil: "To be still" is "to keep silence" (Ps 4:4, etc.) and so "to be quiet" (Ps 107:29, etc.) or "inactive" in any way (Jdg 18:9; 1 Ki 22:3; Zec 1:11, etc.). So "be still" in Ps 46:10 means "desist from your war" (compare the Revised Version margin "let be"). The "still small voice" of 1 Ki 19:12 (the Revised Version margin "sound of gentle stillness") is due to taking the Hebrew demamah in its literal force of "silent," but the word here means "whisper"--"a whispering, little voice." This familiar passage, however, has made "still voice" good English, and the combination is used in Job 4:16 by the Revised Version margin. In Ps 23:2 the translation "still waters" takes "waters of rest" (so literally for menuchah; compare the Revised Version margin) to mean "waters with little motion." But the meaning is either "wells by which the flocks rest" or "wells that give refreshing water." As an adverb "still" is perhaps more emphatic than in modern English; compare "power to keep still the kingdom," 2 Ch 22:9 the King James Version (the Revised Version (British and American) "to hold the kingdom").

Burton Scott Easton