---
title: Ecclesiastes 4:12 (JPS 1917) — And if a man prevail against him that is alone, two shall withstand… · tree and pragmatics
description: And if a man prevail against him that is alone, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Who acts: man, two. Ecclesiastes 4:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 4:12 · JPS 1917

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And if a man prevail against him that is alone, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

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**Who acts:** man, two · **What happens:** prevail, be, withstand, not break · **To what, where:** man, threefold cord

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This is Ecclesiastes 4:12 · 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 (man, two), 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:85
# text = And if a man prevail against him that is alone, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
2	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	prevail	prevail	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
6	against	against	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	alone	alone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
12	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nsubj	_	_
13	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	withstand	withstand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	threefold	threefold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	cord	cord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux:pass	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
23	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	conj	_	_
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed polarity=none

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prevail** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | a man |  |  |  |  | against two | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme against he=Location |
| 2 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | alone *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **withstand** | shall | two | man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **break** | present · passive |  | a threefold cord |  |  |  | quickly *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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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וְאִֽם־יִתְקְפוֹ֙ הָאֶחָ֔ד הַשְּׁנַ֖יִם יַעַמְד֣וּ נֶגְדּ֑וֹ וְהַחוּט֙ הַֽמְשֻׁלָּ֔שׁ לֹ֥א בִמְהֵרָ֖ה יִנָּתֵֽק׃

[Ecclesiastes 4:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.4.12/)

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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:85` 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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