---
title: Ecclesiastes 7:16 (JPS 1917) — Be not righteous overmuch; neither make thyself overwise; why should… · tree and pragmatics
description: Be not righteous overmuch; neither make thyself overwise; why shouldest thou destroy thyself? Who acts: you, thou. Ecclesiastes 7:16 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 7:16 · JPS 1917

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Be not righteous overmuch; neither make thyself overwise; why shouldest thou destroy thyself?

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**Who acts:** you, thou · **What happens:** not be, make, destroy · **To what, where:** thyself

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This is Ecclesiastes 7:16 · 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 (you, thou), 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:138
# text = Be not righteous overmuch; neither make thyself overwise; why shouldest thou destroy thyself?
1	Be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	cop	_	_
2	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	righteous	righteous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	overmuch	overmuch	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
6	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	7	cc	_	_
7	make	make	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
8	thyself	thyself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes|Style=Arch	7	obj	_	_
9	overwise	overwise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	xcomp	_	_
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
11	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
12	shouldest	should	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	14	nsubj	_	_
14	destroy	destroy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
15	thyself	thyself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes|Style=Arch	14	obj	_	_
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | overmuch, righteous *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** | infinitive |  | thyself |  |  |  | overwise *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset thyself=Product |
| 3 | **destroy** | should | thou | thyself |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thyself=Patient |

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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}

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אַל־תְּהִ֤י צַדִּיק֙ הַרְבֵּ֔ה וְאַל־תִּתְחַכַּ֖ם יוֹתֵ֑ר לָ֖מָּה תִּשּׁוֹמֵֽם׃

[Ecclesiastes 7:16: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.7.16/)

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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:138` 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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