---
title: Ecclesiastes 3:15 (JPS 1917) — That which is hath been long ago, and that which is to be hath alrea… · tree and pragmatics
description: That which is hath been long ago, and that which is to be hath already been; and God seeketh that which is pursued. Who acts: That, God. Ecclesiastes 3:15 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 3:15 · JPS 1917

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That which is hath been long ago, and that which is to be hath already been; and God seeketh that which is pursued.

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**Who acts:** That, God · **What happens:** be, seek, pursue · **To what, where:** that

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This is Ecclesiastes 3:15 · 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 (That, God), 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:65
# text = That which is hath been long ago, and that which is to be hath already been; and God seeketh that which is pursued.
1	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	nsubj	_	_
2	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	1	acl:relcl	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	cop	_	_
4	hath	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	cop	_	_
6	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
7	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	0	root	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl:relcl	_	_
15	hath	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	already	already	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	seeketh	seek	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
22	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	obj	_	_
23	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	pursued	pursue	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	acl:relcl	_	_
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present · perfect | That |  |  |  |  | ago, long *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **seek** | present | God | that |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Theme |
| 4 | **pursue** | present · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

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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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מַה־שֶּֽׁהָיָה֙ כְּבָ֣ר ה֔וּא וַאֲשֶׁ֥ר לִהְי֖וֹת כְּבָ֣ר הָיָ֑ה וְהָאֱלֹהִ֖ים יְבַקֵּ֥שׁ אֶת־נִרְדָּֽף׃

[Ecclesiastes 3:15: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.3.15/)

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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:65` 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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