---
title: Ecclesiastes 8:2 (JPS 1917) — I counsel thee: keep the king's command, and that in regard of the o… · tree and pragmatics
description: I counsel thee: keep the king's command, and that in regard of the oath of God. Who acts: I, king. Ecclesiastes 8:2 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/ECC.154/)

<!-- 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/) / [Ecclesiastes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC/) / [chapter 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC/8/) / [8:2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.8.2/) / JPS 1

# Ecclesiastes 8:2 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I counsel thee: keep the king's command, and that in regard of the oath of God.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, king · **What happens:** counsel, keep, command, regard · **To what, where:** thee, command, regard, oath · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Ecclesiastes 8:2 · 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, king), 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:154
# text = I counsel thee: keep the king's command, and that in regard of the oath of God.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	counsel	counsel	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	2	obj	_	_
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
5	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	command	command	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	conj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	regard	regard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	oath	oath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: request
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=request

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **counsel** *speech: other* | present | I | thee |  |  |  |  | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent thou=Recipient |
| 2 | **keep** | infinitive |  | the king's command |  | regard of the oath of God |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent command=Theme in regard=Location |
| 3 | **command** |  | the king |  |  |  |  |  | nom command «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
| 4 | **regard** |  |  | the oath of God |  |  |  |  | nom regard «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 -->
אֲנִי֙ פִּי־מֶ֣לֶךְ שְׁמ֔וֹר וְעַ֕ל דִּבְרַ֖ת שְׁבוּעַ֥ת אֱלֹהִֽים׃

[Ecclesiastes 8:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.8.2/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:ECC:154` 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: [Ecclesiastes 8:1 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.153/)
- next →: [Ecclesiastes 8:3 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.155/)
- ↑ back to [Ecclesiastes 8:2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.8.2/)