---
title: Job 9:3 (JPS 1917) — If one should desire to contend with Him, he could not answer Him on… · tree and pragmatics
description: If one should desire to contend with Him, he could not answer Him one of a thousand. Who acts: one, God. Job 9:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Job 9:3 · JPS 1917

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If one should desire to contend with Him, he could not answer Him one of a thousand.

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**Who acts:** one, God · **What happens:** desire, contend, not answer · **To what, where:** one, man

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This is Job 9:3 · 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 (one, 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:JOB:200
# text = If one should desire to contend with Him, he could not answer Him one of a thousand.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	one	one	PRON	CD	Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Ind	4	nsubj	_	_
3	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	desire	desire	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	contend	contend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
14	Him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nmod	_	_
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **desire** *a condition, not said to happen* | should | one |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **contend** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | one *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with God | vn battle-36.4 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with he=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **not** **answer** *speech: assert* | could | God | one of a thousand | man |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent he=Theme one=Eventuality |

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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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אִם־יַ֭חְפֹּץ לָרִ֣יב עִמּ֑וֹ לֹֽא־יַ֝עֲנֶ֗נּוּ אַחַ֥ת מִנִּי־אָֽלֶף׃

[Job 9:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.9.3/)

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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:200` 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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