---
title: Job 29:16 (JPS 1917) — I was a father to the needy; and the cause of him that I knew not I… · tree and pragmatics
description: I was a father to the needy; and the cause of him that I knew not I searched out. Who acts: I, cause. Job 29:16 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Job 29:16 · JPS 1917

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I was a father to the needy; and the cause of him that I knew not I searched out.

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**Who acts:** I, cause · **What happens:** be, not know, search out, cause · **To what, where:** father, tongue

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This is Job 29:16 · 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 (I, cause), 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:739
# text = I was a father to the needy; and the cause of him that I knew not I searched out.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	needy	needy	ADJ	JJ	_	4	obl	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nmod	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	obj	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	searched	search	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: neg
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | I | a father |  |  |  | to the needy | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **know** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus |
| 3 | **search out** | past | the cause of tongue |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **cause** |  |  | tongue |  |  |  |  | nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 -->
אָ֣ב אָ֭נֹכִֽי לָֽאֶבְיוֹנִ֑ים וְרִ֖ב לֹא־יָדַ֣עְתִּי אֶחְקְרֵֽהוּ׃

[Job 29:16: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.29.16/)

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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:739` 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 29:15 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/JOB.738/)
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- ↑ back to [Job 29:16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.29.16/)