---
title: Ecclesiastes 7:23 (JPS 1917) — All this have I tried by wisdom; I said: 'I will get wisdom'; but it… · tree and pragmatics
description: All this have I tried by wisdom; I said: 'I will get wisdom'; but it was far from me. Who acts: I, wisdom. Ecclesiastes 7:23 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 7:23 · JPS 1917

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All this have I tried by wisdom; I said: 'I will get wisdom'; but it was far from me.

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**Who acts:** I, wisdom · **What happens:** try, say, get, be · **To what, where:** this, wisdom · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Ecclesiastes 7:23 · 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 (I, wisdom), 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:145
# text = All this have I tried by wisdom; I said: 'I will get wisdom'; but it was far from me.
1	All	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	2	det:predet	_	_
2	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	obj	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
16	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
17	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	far	far	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
23	from	from	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	_
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=narrate

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | present · perfect | I | this |  |  |  | by wisdom | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent this=Eventuality |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **get** | future | I | wisdom |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer wisdom=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is** | past | wisdom |  |  |  |  | from me; far *property* | tree rules |

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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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כָּל־זֹ֖ה נִסִּ֣יתִי בַֽחָכְמָ֑ה אָמַ֣רְתִּי אֶחְכָּ֔מָה וְהִ֖יא רְחוֹקָ֥ה מִמֶּֽנִּי׃

[Ecclesiastes 7:23: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.7.23/)

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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:145` 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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