---
title: Lamentations 4:17 (JPS 1917) — As for us, our eyes do yet fail for our vain help; in our watching w… · tree and pragmatics
description: As for us, our eyes do yet fail for our vain help; in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save. Who acts: eyes, we, nation, our. Lamentations 4:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Lamentations 4:17 · JPS 1917

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As for us, our eyes do yet fail for our vain help; in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.

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**Who acts:** eyes, we, nation, our · **What happens:** fail, watch, not save, help · **To what, where:** watching

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This is Lamentations 4:17 · 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 (eyes, we, nation, our), 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:138
# text = As for us, our eyes do yet fail for our vain help; in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.
1	As	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	3	case	_	_
2	for	for	ADP	IN	_	1	fixed	_	_
3	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	_
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
7	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	fail	fail	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	watching	watch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
18	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	watched	watch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	parataxis	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	nation	nation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
25	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	acl:relcl	_	_
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fail** | present · do-support | our eyes |  |  |  | yet | as us; for our vain help | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **watch** | present · perfect | we |  |  | our watching |  | for a nation | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.theme NP.location»: agent=Agent in watch=Location for nation=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **save** | could | a nation |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **help** |  | our |  |  |  |  |  | nom help «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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עוֹדֵ֙ינוּ֙ תִּכְלֶ֣ינָה עֵינֵ֔ינוּ אֶל־עֶזְרָתֵ֖נוּ הָ֑בֶל בְּצִפִּיָּתֵ֣נוּ צִפִּ֔ינוּ אֶל־גּ֖וֹי לֹ֥א יוֹשִֽׁעַ׃ס

[Lamentations 4:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM.4.17/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:LAM:138` 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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