---
title: Lamentations 3:40 (JPS 1917) — Let us search and try our ways, and return to the LORD. · tree and pragmatics
description: Let us search and try our ways, and return to the LORD. Who acts: you, us. Lamentations 3:40 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.93/)

<!-- 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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM/3/) / [3:40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM.3.40/) / JPS 1

# Lamentations 3:40 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Let us search and try our ways, and return to the LORD.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, us · **What happens:** let, search, try, return · **To what, where:** us, ways

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Lamentations 3:40 · 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 (you, us), 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:93
# text = Let us search and try our ways, and return to the LORD.
1	Let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	search	search	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	xcomp	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
6	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	ways	way	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	conj	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | imperative | you *not said here* | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **search** | infinitive | us *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **try** | infinitive | us *not said here* | our ways |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Eventuality |
| 4 | **return** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the LORD *result* | vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to lord=Result |

<!-- .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 -->
נַחְפְּשָׂ֤ה דְרָכֵ֙ינוּ֙ וְֽנַחְקֹ֔רָה וְנָשׁ֖וּבָה עַד־יְהוָֽה׃

[Lamentations 3:40: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM.3.40/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:LAM:93` 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 3:39 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/LAM.92/)
- next →: [Lamentations 3:41 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/LAM.94/)
- ↑ back to [Lamentations 3:40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM.3.40/)