---
title: Ecclesiastes 11:6 (JPS 1917) — In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy han… · tree and pragmatics
description: In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand; for thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good. Who acts: you, thou, this. Ecclesiastes 11:6 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 11:6 · JPS 1917

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In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand; for thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.

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**Who acts:** you, thou, this · **What happens:** sow, not withhold, not know, prosper, be · **To what, where:** seed, hand · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Ecclesiastes 11:6 · 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, this), 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:213
# text = In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand; for thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
4	sow	sow	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	seed	seed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
12	withhold	withhold	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
14	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
17	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	19	nsubj	_	_
19	knowest	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
21	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
22	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	prosper	prosper	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
26	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	37	nsubj	_	_
27	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	conj	_	_
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
30	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
31	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
32	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
33	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	32	det	_	_
34	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
35	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	cop	_	_
36	alike	alike	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	conj	_	_
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sow** | imperative | you *not said here* | thy seed |  |  | morning |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent seed=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **withhold** | infinitive | you *not said here* | thy hand |  |  | evening |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **know** | present | thou |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **prosper** | shall |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | shall | this |  |  |  |  | alike, good *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
בַּבֹּ֙קֶר֙ זְרַ֣ע אֶת־זַרְעֶ֔ךָ וְלָעֶ֖רֶב אַל־תַּנַּ֣ח יָדֶ֑ךָ כִּי֩ אֵֽינְךָ֨ יוֹדֵ֜עאֵ֣י זֶ֤ה יִכְשָׁר֙ הֲזֶ֣ה אוֹ־זֶ֔ה וְאִם־שְׁנֵיהֶ֥ם כְּאֶחָ֖ד טוֹבִֽים׃

[Ecclesiastes 11:6: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.11.6/)

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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:213` 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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- ← previous: [Ecclesiastes 11:5 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.212/)
- next →: [Ecclesiastes 11:7 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.214/)
- ↑ back to [Ecclesiastes 11:6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.11.6/)