---
title: Ecclesiastes 4:5 (JPS 1917) — The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh. · tree and pragmatics
description: The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh. Who acts: fool. Ecclesiastes 4:5 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 4:5 · JPS 1917

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The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.

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**Who acts:** fool · **What happens:** fold, eat · **To what, where:** hands, own flesh

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This is Ecclesiastes 4:5 · 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 (fool), 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:78
# text = The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	foldeth	fold	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	together	together	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	eateth	eat	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	flesh	flesh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	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 | **fold** | present | the fool | fool's hands |  |  |  | together *property* | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent hand=Patient |
| 2 | **eat** | present | the fool *not said here* | fool's own flesh |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flesh=Patient |

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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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הַכְּסִיל֙ חֹבֵ֣ק אֶת־יָדָ֔יו וְאֹכֵ֖ל אֶת־בְּשָׂרֽוֹ׃

[Ecclesiastes 4:5: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.4.5/)

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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:78` 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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