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 (Jud 18:9;1Ki 22:3;Zec 1:11, etc.). So "be still" inPs 46:10means "desist from your war" (compare the Revised Version margin "let be"). The "still small voice" of1Ki 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 inJob 4:16by the Revised Version margin. InPs 23:2the 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,"2Ch 22:9the King James Version (the Revised Version (British and American) "to hold the kingdom").
Burton Scott Easton