---
title: Job 38:40 (JPS 1917) — When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait? · tree and pragmatics
description: When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait? Who acts: lions. Job 38:40 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Job 38:40 · JPS 1917

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When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait?

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**Who acts:** lions · **What happens:** couch, abide, lie · **To what, where:** dens, covert, wait

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This is Job 38:40 · 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 (lions), 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:JOB:1051
# text = When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait?
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	couch	couch	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	dens	den	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	abide	abide	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	covert	covert	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	lie	lie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	wait	wait	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=wh, act=ask

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **couch** | present | lions *= lion* |  |  | lions's dens |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **abide** | present | lions *= lion* *not said here* |  |  | the covert |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **lie** | to-infinitive | lions *= lion* *not said here* |  |  | wait |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in wait=Location |

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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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כִּי־יָשֹׁ֥חוּ בַמְּעוֹנ֑וֹת יֵשְׁב֖וּ בַסֻּכָּ֣ה לְמוֹ־אָֽרֶב׃

[Job 38:40: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.38.40/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JOB:1051` 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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- ← previous: [Job 38:39 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/JOB.1050/)
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