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"Thin-terpretations"--passages poorly supported in popular usage

patience said:
Yea, that really seems like it fits - NOT!
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside toxic, brackish waters. He restores my soul. :ROFLMAO:

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still, restful, peaceful waters. He restores my soul.
That sounds more like it . . . :love:
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Ie, he protects us from brackish water in a desert when we are desparate to drink. This is a commonly known reality in the animal tending world in arid climates. Translations sometimes make huge mistakes, and sometimes just make obsolete mistakes (unable to keep up with research).
 
APAK said:
I think you are overdoing the idea of seeing and living in a complete desert and toxic environment with constant flash floods. Where did you get this notion of real literal waters for this verse anyway? I do not know the source of it.

The waters are used in this verse metaphorically and read to not mean literal waters for physical drinking to quench thirst. Waters, rivers, seas represent people in this world. There are 'restful' spirits, and some are wild human sprits and metaphorically called 'still' or 'running' waters. And we know too well how each variety can affect us and others in this world. The sheep need protection from the world and a place to lay their heads at night in security and peace.
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Analogies have to be rooted in reality or they are worthless. There is new etymological research on what the words mean, on what that preposition means when used with toxic water. Deserts have toxic water, btw.

What is so hard about accepting that God protects us from toxic things and leads us past them? Jesus may have borrowed on this for the Lord's Prayer:

lead us not into temptation...
 
patience said:
Yea, that really seems like it fits - NOT!
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside toxic, brackish waters. He restores my soul. :ROFLMAO:

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still, restful, peaceful waters. He restores my soul.
That sounds more like it . . . :love:
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Do you know what circular thinking is: it's when we say something is true because we say so, because a 2nd hand source said so. Only the original language is the source, and there is research about terms going on all the time, and reaching other conclusions. There are old and obsolete translation examples all over the place, not just here. That's why I made a list, although the pop use of an expression is not necessarily in an official translation.

If you have actual experience with Bedouin sheep farmers or the Fulani of N Nigeria (edge of Sahara)--do speak up. I do. If you know an experience captured in an old west novel about toxic water, speak up; I do.
 
patience said:
Yea, that really seems like it fits - NOT!
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside toxic, brackish waters. He restores my soul. :ROFLMAO:

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still, restful, peaceful waters. He restores my soul.
That sounds more like it . . . :love:
Click to expand...

You are also missing 50% of the upgraded transation: beside is best rendered as past (to go past). Cp. again to the Lord's prayer: 'not into temptation.'

If it is about protection, what is the matter?
 
You are trying too hard and confusing meaning. Your translation to brackish doesn't make any sense in the context of the verse. The Lord is MY Shepherd. What was The Lord doing? He had good plans. They were laying down in green pastures. This is a pleasant thing. Leading my beside still waters is a pleasant relaxing thing.

"The setting is the toxic water of middle east deserts."
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The Middle East is a big place. Are we talking the Fertile Crescent? The Nile? It is a Psalms of David. It was in Israel. Are you saying there is a lot of toxic water in Israel where someone would be herding their lambs near? You applied a really bad stereotype, and then started writing authoritatively. You were wrong to be apply the bad stereotype. You were wrong to writing authoritatively about it.
That is just one example.
 
Besides the word etymology ("past" with "still water" is usually about toxic waters sources), Van Der Meer in THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW interviewed several Bedouin shepherds (the most primitive he could find) and that was a problem they had to deal with.

I also learned of it at the edge of the Sahara with Islamic Fulani herdsmen.

It is also in the Michener novel scene about a cattle drive from TX to COL and the need for the point man to find out quickly if water sources were toxic or not.

If you have other sources, please share, but just a reaction to an unfamiliar line is not enough for me.

At the end of the day, it is about God protecting us. He leads us past toxic water when we are desparate, which is a good thing! Animals in deserts get really desparate.
 
EarlyActs said:
You are also missing 50% of the upgraded transation: beside is best rendered as past (to go past). Cp. again to the Lord's prayer: 'not into temptation.'

If it is about protection, what is the matter?
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What is the matter with you? Sheep like still water to drink from. Every raiser of sheep knows this and makes sure they have still water to drink from be it trough or pool or pond. Your are stuck on a translation that you say "is best rendered" which means it is only best if it is applicable. Which it isn't in this case as the lying down in green pastures, still waters, restoration of the soul, and in paths of righteousness, all speak of peace and restfulness, and provision. We get to the protection with the rod and the staff. Bite the bullet of oops, and be led "past" the hole you are digging.

The very setting of abundance of all that is needed for life for sheep, renders a desert setting preposterous as the analogy.
 
Arial said:
What is the matter with you? Sheep like still water to drink from. Every raiser of sheep knows this and makes sure they have still water to drink from be it trough or pool or pond. Your are stuck on a translation that you say "is best rendered" which means it is only best if it is applicable. Which it isn't in this case as the lying down in green pastures, still waters, restoration of the soul, and in paths of righteousness, all speak of peace and restfulness, and provision. We get to the protection with the rod and the staff. Bite the bullet of oops, and be led "past" the hole you are digging.

The very setting of abundance of all that is needed for life for sheep, renders a desert setting preposterous as the analogy.
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He leads us past the toxic situation to the good one. The psalm is not a total description of either the danger or the abundance of life. As in all poetry, such analogies last about 1 line.

At the end of the day, God is protecting us, and that is good thing.
 
1Mind1Spirit said:
They were being led to the green pastures.

Take your pick, lol
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There are many analogies in the poem, they last about 1 line each time. There are no dinner tables being set up in the pastures. It is a one-line analogy. So is the toxicity of some water in the desert that we need to be lead past/away from. "Lead us not into temptation."
 
Arial said:
What is the matter with you? Sheep like still water to drink from. Every raiser of sheep knows this and makes sure they have still water to drink from be it trough or pool or pond. Your are stuck on a translation that you say "is best rendered" which means it is only best if it is applicable. Which it isn't in this case as the lying down in green pastures, still waters, restoration of the soul, and in paths of righteousness, all speak of peace and restfulness, and provision. We get to the protection with the rod and the staff. Bite the bullet of oops, and be led "past" the hole you are digging.

The very setting of abundance of all that is needed for life for sheep, renders a desert setting preposterous as the analo
Arial said:
What is the matter with you? Sheep like still water to drink from. Every raiser of sheep knows this and makes sure they have still water to drink from be it trough or pool or pond. Your are stuck on a translation that you say "is best rendered" which means it is only best if it is applicable. Which it isn't in this case as the lying down in green pastures, still waters, restoration of the soul, and in paths of righteousness, all speak of peace and restfulness, and provision. We get to the protection with the rod and the staff. Bite the bullet of oops, and be led "past" the hole you are digging.

The very setting of abundance of all that is needed for life for sheep, renders a desert setting preposterous as the analogy.
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You are welcome to write to the producer of the mission documentary THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW and tell him your thoughts.
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