---
title: Ecclesiastes 2:21 (JPS 1917) — For there is a man whose labour is with wisdom, and with knowledge,… · tree and pragmatics
description: For there is a man whose labour is with wisdom, and with knowledge, and with skill; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. Who acts: man, labour, wisdom. Ecclesiastes 2:21 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 2:21 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For there is a man whose labour is with wisdom, and with knowledge, and with skill; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, labour, wisdom · **What happens:** be, not labour, leave · **To what, where:** labour, man

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Ecclesiastes 2:21 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2 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, labour, wisdom), 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:41
# text = For there is a man whose labour is with wisdom, and with knowledge, and with skill; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion.
1	For	for	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	_	3	expl	_	_
3	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
6	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	labour	labour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
8	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	acl:relcl	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	_
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
20	yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
25	hath	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	laboured	labour	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	acl:relcl	_	_
28	therein	therein	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
29	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	portion	portion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | present | a man |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | present | wisdom and knowledge and skill's labour |  |  |  |  | with wisdom and knowledge and skill | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **labour** | present · perfect | a man |  |  |  |  | therein *property* | vn work-73.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **leave** | shall | wisdom | labour | a man |  |  | for wisdom's portion | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Theme to man=Recipient |

<!-- .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 -->
כִּי־יֵ֣שׁ אָדָ֗ם שֶׁעֲמָל֛וֹ בְּחָכְמָ֥ה וּבְדַ֖עַת וּבְכִשְׁר֑וֹן וּלְאָדָ֞ם שֶׁלֹּ֤א עָֽמַל־בּוֹ֙ יִתְּנֶ֣נּוּ חֶלְק֔וֹ גַּם־זֶ֥ה הֶ֖בֶל וְרָעָ֥ה רַבָּֽה׃

[Ecclesiastes 2:21: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.2.21/)

<!-- .note -->
This verse in JPS 1917:

<!-- .ens -->
1. **For there is a man whose labour is with wisdom, and with knowledge, and with skill; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion.**
2. [This also is vanity and a great evil.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.42/)

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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:41` 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 2:20 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.40/)
- next →: [Ecclesiastes 2:21 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.42/)
- ↑ back to [Ecclesiastes 2:21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.2.21/)