---
title: Job 22:2 (JPS 1917) — Can a man be profitable unto God? · tree and pragmatics
description: Can a man be profitable unto God? Who acts: man. Job 22:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Job 22:2 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

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Can a man be profitable unto God?

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** be

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This is Job 22:2 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2 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 (man), 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:567
# text = Can a man be profitable unto God?
1	Can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
5	profitable	profitable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed voice=character

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | can | a man |  |  |  |  | unto God; profitable *property* | tree rules |

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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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הַלְאֵ֥ל יִסְכָּן־גָּ֑בֶר כִּֽי־יִסְכֹּ֖ן עָלֵ֣ימוֹ מַשְׂכִּֽיל׃

[Job 22:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.22.2/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. **Can a man be profitable unto God?**
2. [Or can he that is wise be profitable unto Him?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/JOB.568/)

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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:567` 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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