---
title: Ecclesiastes 5:5 (JPS 1917) — Suffer not thy mouth to bring thy flesh into guilt, neither say thou… · tree and pragmatics
description: Suffer not thy mouth to bring thy flesh into guilt, neither say thou before the messenger, that it was an error; wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thy hands? Who acts: you, thou, flesh, God. Ecclesiastes 5:5 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# Ecclesiastes 5:5 · JPS 1917

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Suffer not thy mouth to bring thy flesh into guilt, neither say thou before the messenger, that it was an error; wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thy hands?

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**Who acts:** you, thou, flesh, God, hands · **What happens:** not suffer, bring, say, be, destroy, work · **To what, where:** mouth, flesh, guilt, error, voice, work · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Ecclesiastes 5:5 · 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 (you, thou, flesh, 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:96
# text = Suffer not thy mouth to bring thy flesh into guilt, neither say thou before the messenger, that it was an error; wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thy hands?
1	Suffer	suffer	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	1	advmod	_	_
3	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	xcomp	_	_
7	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	flesh	flesh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	into	into	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	guilt	guilt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	13	cc	_	_
13	say	say	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
14	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	13	nsubj	_	_
15	before	before	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	messenger	messenger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	error	error	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	ccomp	_	_
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
25	wherefore	wherefore	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	29	advmod	_	_
26	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
27	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
28	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	cop	_	_
29	angry	angry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	parataxis	_	_
30	at	at	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	destroy	destroy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	conj	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	nmod	_	_
41	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no question
- act: suggest
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- indirect: yes
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **suffer** | imperative | you *not said here* | thy mouth |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **bring** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | thy flesh |  | guilt |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent flesh=Theme into guilt=Destination |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | infinitive | thou |  |  |  | before the messenger |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | past | flesh | a error |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | should | God |  |  | thy voice |  | angry, wherefore *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **destroy** | infinitive | God *not said here* | the work of thy hands |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent work=Patient |
| 7 | **work** |  | thy hands |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
אַל־תִּתֵּ֤ן אֶת־פִּ֙יךָ֙ לַחֲטִ֣יא אֶת־בְּשָׂרֶ֔ךָ וְאַל־תֹּאמַר֙ לִפְנֵ֣י הַמַּלְאָ֔ךְ כִּ֥י שְׁגָגָ֖ה הִ֑יא לָ֣מָּה יִקְצֹ֤ף הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ עַל־קוֹלֶ֔ךָ וְחִבֵּ֖ל אֶת־מַעֲשֵׂ֥ה יָדֶֽיךָ׃

[Ecclesiastes 5:5: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.5.5/)

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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:96` 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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