---
title: Lamentations 4:7 (JPS 1917) — Her princes were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they w… · tree and pragmatics
description: Her princes were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire; Who acts: princes, polishing. Lamentations 4:7 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/LAM.128/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Ketuvim](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/) / [Lamentations](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM/) / [chapter 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM/4/) / [4:7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM.4.7/) / JPS 1

# Lamentations 4:7 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Her princes were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire;

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** princes, polishing · **What happens:** be, polish · **To what, where:** body

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Lamentations 4:7 · 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 (princes, polishing), 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:LAM:128
# text = Her princes were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire;
1	Her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	princes	prince	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	purer	pure	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
5	than	than	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	whiter	white	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	parataxis	_	_
11	than	than	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	17	advmod	_	_
17	ruddy	ruddy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
20	than	than	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	rubies	ruby	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	polishing	polishing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
26	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	28	case	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	fixed	_	_
28	sapphire	sapphire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	_
29	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | sin's princes |  |  |  |  | than snow; pure *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | princes *= prince* |  |  |  |  | than milk; white *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | princes *= prince* |  |  | body |  | than rubies; ruddy *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | princes's polishing |  |  |  |  | as sapphire | tree rules |
| 5 | **polish** |  | princes *= prince* |  |  |  |  |  | nom polishing «act transitive»: poss=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 -->
זַכּ֤וּ נְזִירֶ֙יהָ֙ מִשֶּׁ֔לֶג צַח֖וּ מֵחָלָ֑ב אָ֤דְמוּ עֶ֙צֶם֙ מִפְּנִינִ֔ים סַפִּ֖יר גִּזְרָתָֽם׃ס

[Lamentations 4:7: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM.4.7/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:LAM:128` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Lamentations 4:6 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/LAM.127/)
- next →: [Lamentations 4:8 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/LAM.129/)
- ↑ back to [Lamentations 4:7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM.4.7/)