---
title: Ecclesiastes 4:13 (JPS 1917) — Better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king, who kn… · tree and pragmatics
description: Better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king, who knoweth not how to receive admonition any more. Who acts: poor child, old king. Ecclesiastes 4:13 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 4:13 · JPS 1917

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Better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king, who knoweth not how to receive admonition any more.

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**Who acts:** poor child, old king · **What happens:** be, not know, receive · **To what, where:** admonition

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This is Ecclesiastes 4:13 · 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 (poor child, old king), 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:86
# text = Better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king, who knoweth not how to receive admonition any more.
1	Better	better	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
4	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
7	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	_
8	than	than	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
9	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
13	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	knoweth	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
18	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	receive	receive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
21	admonition	admonition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
22	any	any	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	20	advmod	_	_
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | a poor child than a old king |  |  |  |  | better *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **know** | present | a old king |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **receive** | to-infinitive | a old king *not said here* | admonition |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent admonition=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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ט֛וֹב יֶ֥לֶד מִסְכֵּ֖ן וְחָכָ֑ם מִמֶּ֤לֶךְ זָקֵן֙ וּכְסִ֔יל אֲשֶׁ֛ר לֹא־יָדַ֥ע לְהִזָּהֵ֖ר עֽוֹד׃

[Ecclesiastes 4:13: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.4.13/)

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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:86` 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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