---
title: Daniel 5:8 (JPS 1917) — Then came in all the king's wise men: but they could not read the wr… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then came in all the king's wise men: but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation. Who acts: wise men, knees. Daniel 5:8 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/DAN.152/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Ketuvim](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/) / [Daniel](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/DAN/) / [chapter 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/DAN/5/) / [5:8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/DAN.5.8/) / JPS 1

# Daniel 5:8 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then came in all the king's wise men: but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wise men, knees · **What happens:** come in, not read, make · **To what, where:** writing, interpretation

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Daniel 5:8 · JPS 1917 in the English of the Jewish Publication Society's 1917 translation, from Mova's open Bible corpus. The page gives the sentence's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies, parsed by Mova and checked by a teacher model — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wise men, knees), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it. The original of the verse links back to its own tree and to the Targum.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = jps:DAN:152
# text = Then came in all the king's wise men: but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	in	in	ADV	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	9	det:predet	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	_
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	writing	writing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	20	cc	_	_
20	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
21	known	know	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	xcomp	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	interpretation	interpretation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: pos
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come in** | past | the king's wise men |  |  |  | then |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **read** | could | knees *= knee* | the writing |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent writing=Topic |
| 3 | **make** | infinitive | knees *= knee* *not said here* | the interpretation |  |  |  | know *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset interpretation=Product |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

## The Aramaic of this verse {#hebrew}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=arc -->
אֱדַ֙יִן֙ עָֽלִּ֔ין כֹּ֖ל חַכִּימֵ֣י מַלְכָּ֑א וְלָֽא־כָהֲלִ֤ין כְּתָבָא֙ לְמִקְרֵ֔א וּפִשְׁרֵ֖הּ לְהוֹדָעָ֥ה לְמַלְכָּֽא׃

[Daniel 5:8: the Aramaic tree, its pragmatics →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/DAN.5.8/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:DAN:152` of Mova's parse database.

**The tree and the speech act** come from Mova's cycle: the small model's draft, read by a large model as teacher, passed by Mova's gates (Elamur Cosmic License). **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the chapter read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence of the chapter.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Daniel 5:7 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/DAN.151/)
- next →: [Daniel 5:9 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/DAN.153/)
- ↑ back to [Daniel 5:8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/DAN.5.8/)