---
title: Ecclesiastes 8:7 (JPS 1917) — For he knoweth not that which shall be; for even when it cometh to p… · tree and pragmatics
description: For he knoweth not that which shall be; for even when it cometh to pass, who shall declare it unto him? Who acts: man, evil. Ecclesiastes 8:7 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 8:7 · JPS 1917

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For he knoweth not that which shall be; for even when it cometh to pass, who shall declare it unto him?

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**Who acts:** man, evil · **What happens:** not know, come, pass, declare · **To what, where:** that, evil

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This is Ecclesiastes 8:7 · 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 (man, evil), 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:159
# text = For he knoweth not that which shall be; for even when it cometh to pass, who shall declare it unto him?
1	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	knoweth	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obj	_	_
6	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
7	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl:relcl	_	_
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
10	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
11	even	even	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	14	mark	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	cometh	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	20	nsubj	_	_
19	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	declare	declare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	_
24	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=decl, act=assert, voice=character

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | present | man | that |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus |
| 2 | **come** | present | evil |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **pass** | to-infinitive | evil *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **declare** *speech: other* | shall |  | evil |  |  |  | unto man | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Attribute |

<!-- .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}

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כִּֽי־אֵינֶ֥נּוּ יֹדֵ֖עַ מַה־שֶּׁיִּֽהְיֶ֑ה כִּ֚י כַּאֲשֶׁ֣ר יִֽהְיֶ֔ה מִ֖י יַגִּ֥יד לֽוֹ׃

[Ecclesiastes 8:7: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.8.7/)

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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:159` 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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