---
title: Ecclesiastes 12:1 (JPS 1917) — Remember then thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil… · tree and pragmatics
description: Remember then thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say: 'I have no pleasure in them'; Who acts: you, evil days, years, thou. Ecclesiastes 12:1 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 12:1 · JPS 1917

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Remember then thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say: 'I have no pleasure in them';

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**Who acts:** you, evil days, years, thou, I · **What happens:** remember, come, draw, say, have · **To what, where:** Creator, pleasure · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Ecclesiastes 12:1 · 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, evil days, years, thou), 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:219
# text = Remember then thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say: 'I have no pleasure in them';
1	Remember	remember	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	1	advmod	_	_
3	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	Creator	creator	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	come	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	advcl	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
21	draw	draw	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
22	nigh	nigh	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	27	mark	_	_
25	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	27	nsubj	_	_
26	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
28	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
29	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	31	punct	_	_
30	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	ccomp	_	_
32	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	33	det	_	_
33	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nmod	_	_
36	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	31	punct	_	_
37	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **remember** | imperative | you *not said here* | thy Creator |  |  | then; day |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent creator=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | present | the evil days |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **draw** | present | the years |  |  |  |  | nigh *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | shall | thou |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **have** | present | I | no pleasure |  |  |  | in them *= they* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pleasure=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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וּזְכֹר֙ אֶת־בּ֣וֹרְאֶ֔יךָ בִּימֵ֖י בְּחוּרֹתֶ֑יךָ עַ֣ד אֲשֶׁ֤ר לֹא־יָבֹ֙אוּ֙ יְמֵ֣י הָֽרָעָ֔ה וְהִגִּ֣יעוּ שָׁנִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֣ר תֹּאמַ֔ר אֵֽין־לִ֥י בָהֶ֖ם חֵֽפֶץ׃

[Ecclesiastes 12:1: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.12.1/)

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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:219` 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 11:10 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.218/)
- next →: [Ecclesiastes 12:2 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.220/)
- ↑ back to [Ecclesiastes 12:1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.12.1/)