---
title: Ecclesiastes 10:8 (JPS 1917) — He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh through… · tree and pragmatics
description: He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh through a fence, a serpent shall bite him. Who acts: rich, whoso, serpent. Ecclesiastes 10:8 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 10:8 · JPS 1917

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He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh through a fence, a serpent shall bite him.

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**Who acts:** rich, whoso, serpent · **What happens:** dig, fall, break, bite · **To what, where:** pit, fence, rich

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This is Ecclesiastes 10:8 · 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 (rich, whoso, serpent), 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:195
# text = He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh through a fence, a serpent shall bite him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
2	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	3	nsubj	_	_
3	diggeth	dig	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	pit	pit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	into	into	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	_
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
12	whoso	whoso	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	breaketh	break	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
14	through	through	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	fence	fence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	bite	bite	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: neg
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dig** | present |  | a pit |  |  |  |  | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent pit=Theme |
| 2 | **fall** | shall | rich |  |  | pit |  |  | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into it=Result |
| 3 | **break** | present | whoso |  |  | a fence |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through fence=Location |
| 4 | **bite** | shall | a serpent | rich |  |  |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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}

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חֹפֵ֥ר גּוּמָּ֖ץ בּ֣וֹ יִפּ֑וֹל וּפֹרֵ֥ץ גָּדֵ֖ר יִשְּׁכֶ֥נּוּ נָחָֽשׁ׃

[Ecclesiastes 10:8: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.10.8/)

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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:195` 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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