---
title: Ecclesiastes 12:2 (JPS 1917) — Before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, are dark… · tree and pragmatics
description: Before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain; Who acts: clouds. Ecclesiastes 12:2 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.220/)

<!-- 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 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC/12/) / [12:2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.12.2/) / JPS 1

# Ecclesiastes 12:2 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** clouds · **What happens:** darken, return · **To what, where:** sun

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Ecclesiastes 12:2 · 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 (clouds), 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:220
# text = Before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	moon	moon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	stars	star	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
17	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	darkened	darken	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
23	return	return	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
24	after	after	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	rain	rain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=narrate

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **darken** | present · passive |  | the sun and the light and the moon and the stars |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **return** | present | the clouds |  |  |  | after the rain |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
עַ֠ד אֲשֶׁ֨ר לֹֽא־תֶחְשַׁ֤ךְ הַשֶּׁ֙מֶשׁ֙ וְהָא֔וֹר וְהַיָּרֵ֖חַ וְהַכּוֹכָבִ֑ים וְשָׁ֥בוּ הֶעָבִ֖ים אַחַ֥ר הַגָּֽשֶׁם׃

[Ecclesiastes 12:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.12.2/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:ECC:220` 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 12:1 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.219/)
- next →: [Ecclesiastes 12:3 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.221/)
- ↑ back to [Ecclesiastes 12:2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.12.2/)