---
title: Lamentations 2:13 (JPS 1917) — What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daught… · tree and pragmatics
description: What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? Who acts: I. Lamentations 2:13 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Lamentations 2:13 · JPS 1917, sentence 3 of 4

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What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion?

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** equal, comfort · **To what, where:** thee

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This is Lamentations 2:13 · JPS 1917, sentence 3 of 4 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), 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:41
# text = What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
2	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	equal	equal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	obl	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	comfort	comfort	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
12	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	11	obj	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	16	discourse	_	_
15	virgin	virgin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	vocative	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	Zion	Zion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
19	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: narrator
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed voice=narrator, act=ask

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **equal** | shall | I |  |  |  |  | to thee; virgin daughter of Zion *vocative* | tree rules |
| 2 | **comfort** | may | I | thee |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus thou=Experiencer |

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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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מָֽה־אֲעִידֵ֞ךְ מָ֣ה אֲדַמֶּה־לָּ֗ךְ הַבַּת֙ יְר֣וּשָׁלִַ֔ם מָ֤ה אַשְׁוֶה־לָּךְ֙ וַאֲנַֽחֲמֵ֔ךְ בְּתוּלַ֖ת בַּת־צִיּ֑וֹן כִּֽי־גָד֥וֹל כַּיָּ֛ם שִׁבְרֵ֖ךְ מִ֥י יִרְפָּא־לָֽךְ׃ס

[Lamentations 2:13: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM.2.13/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. [What shall I take to witness for thee?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/LAM.39/)
2. [What shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/LAM.40/)
3. **What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion?**
4. [For thy breach is great like the sea; who can heal thee?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/LAM.42/)

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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:41` 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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