---
title: Ecclesiastes 7:10 (JPS 1917) — Say not thou: 'How was it that the former days were better than thes… · tree and pragmatics
description: Say not thou: 'How was it that the former days were better than these?' for it is not out of wisdom that thou inquirest concerning this. Who acts: thou, anger. Ecclesiastes 7:10 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 7:10 · JPS 1917

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Say not thou: 'How was it that the former days were better than these?' for it is not out of wisdom that thou inquirest concerning this.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** thou, anger · **What happens:** not say, be, not be, inquire · **To what, where:** wisdom · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Ecclesiastes 7:10 · 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 (thou, anger), 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:ECC:132
# text = Say not thou: 'How was it that the former days were better than these?' for it is not out of wisdom that thou inquirest concerning this.
1	Say	say	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	1	advmod	_	_
3	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	1	nsubj	_	_
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	1	punct	_	_
5	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	_
6	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	former	former	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	1	ccomp	_	_
15	than	than	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	14	obl	_	_
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
18	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
19	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
23	out	out	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	advcl	_	_
26	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	obl	_	_
27	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	28	nsubj	_	_
28	inquirest	inquire	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	acl:relcl	_	_
29	concerning	concern	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	obl	_	_
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: warn
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=warn, form=imp

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | infinitive | thou |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | anger |  |  |  |  | than these; good *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **is** | present | anger |  |  | wisdom |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **inquire** *speech: other* | present | thou | wisdom |  |  |  | concern this | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 Hebrew of this verse {#hebrew}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
אַל־תֹּאמַר֙ מֶ֣ה הָיָ֔ה שֶׁ֤הַיָּמִים֙ הָרִ֣אשֹׁנִ֔ים הָי֥וּ טוֹבִ֖ים מֵאֵ֑לֶּה כִּ֛י לֹ֥א מֵחָכְמָ֖ה שָׁאַ֥לְתָּ עַל־זֶֽה׃

[Ecclesiastes 7:10: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.7.10/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:ECC:132` 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.

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- ← previous: [Ecclesiastes 7:9 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.131/)
- next →: [Ecclesiastes 7:11 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.133/)
- ↑ back to [Ecclesiastes 7:10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.7.10/)