--- title: Ecclesiastes 4:17 (JPS 1917) — Guard thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be ready to… · tree and pragmatics description: Guard thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be ready to hearken: it is better than when fools give sacrifices; for they know not that they do evil. Who acts: you, thou, foot, fools. Ecclesiastes 4:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.91/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Ketuvim](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/) / [Ecclesiastes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC/) / [chapter 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC/4/) / [4:17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.4.17/) / JPS 1 # Ecclesiastes 4:17 · JPS 1917 Guard thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be ready to hearken: it is better than when fools give sacrifices; for they know not that they do evil. **Who acts:** you, thou, foot, fools, sacrifices · **What happens:** guard, go, be, hearken, give, not know · **To what, where:** foot, house, sacrifices, evil · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is Ecclesiastes 4:17 · 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 (you, thou, foot, fools), 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:91 # text = Guard thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be ready to hearken: it is better than when fools give sacrifices; for they know not that they do evil. 1 Guard guard VERB VB Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 2 thy thy PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch 3 nmod:poss _ _ 3 foot foot NOUN NN Number=Sing 1 obj _ _ 4 when when SCONJ WRB _ 6 mark _ _ 5 thou thou PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch 6 nsubj _ _ 6 goest go VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 1 advcl _ _ 7 to to ADP IN _ 9 case _ _ 8 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 9 det _ _ 9 house house NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 obl _ _ 10 of of ADP IN _ 11 case _ _ 11 God God PROPN NNP Number=Sing 9 nmod _ _ 12 , , PUNCT , _ 15 punct _ _ 13 and and CCONJ CC _ 15 cc _ _ 14 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 15 cop _ _ 15 ready ready ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 1 conj _ _ 16 to to PART TO _ 17 mark _ _ 17 hearken hearken VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 15 xcomp _ _ 18 : : PUNCT : _ 21 punct _ _ 19 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 21 nsubj _ _ 20 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 21 cop _ _ 21 better good ADJ JJR Degree=Cmp 1 parataxis _ _ 22 than than SCONJ IN _ 25 mark _ _ 23 when when SCONJ WRB _ 25 mark _ _ 24 fools fool NOUN NNS Number=Plur 25 nsubj _ _ 25 give give VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 21 advcl _ _ 26 sacrifices sacrifice NOUN NNS Number=Plur 25 obj _ _ 27 ; ; PUNCT : _ 30 punct _ _ 28 for for SCONJ IN _ 30 mark _ _ 29 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 30 nsubj _ _ 30 know know VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 1 advcl _ _ 31 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 30 advmod _ _ 32 that that SCONJ IN _ 34 mark _ _ 33 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 34 nsubj _ _ 34 do do VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 30 ccomp _ _ 35 evil evil NOUN NN Number=Sing 34 obj _ _ 36 . . PUNCT . _ 1 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} - form: command - act: request - voice: narrator - polarity: neg - teacher: kept the draft | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **guard** | imperative | you *not said here* | thy foot | | | | | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent foot=Beneficiary | | 2 | **go** | present | thou | | | the house of God | | | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to house=Initial\_Location | | 3 | **is** | infinitive | you *not said here* | | | | | ready *property* | tree rules | | 4 | **hearken** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **is** | present | foot | | | | | good *property* | tree rules | | 6 | **give** | present | fools | sacrifices | | | | | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sacrifice=Theme | | 7 | **not** **know** | present | sacrifices *= sacrifice* | | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | | 8 | **do** | present | sacrifices *= sacrifice* | evil | | | | | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent evil=Eventuality | 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} שְׁמֹ֣ר רַגְלְךָ֗ כַּאֲשֶׁ֤ר תֵּלֵךְ֙ אֶל־בֵּ֣ית הָאֱלֹהִ֔ים וְקָר֣וֹב לִשְׁמֹ֔עַ מִתֵּ֥ת הַכְּסִילִ֖ים זָ֑בַח כִּֽי־אֵינָ֥ם יוֹדְעִ֖ים לַעֲשׂ֥וֹת רָֽע׃ [Ecclesiastes 4:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.4.17/) **Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:ECC:91` 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. - ← previous: [Ecclesiastes 4:16 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.90/) - next →: [Ecclesiastes 5:1 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.92/) - ↑ back to [Ecclesiastes 4:17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.4.17/)