---
title: Nehemiah 9:21 (JPS 1917) — Yea, forty years didst Thou sustain them in the wilderness, and they… · tree and pragmatics
description: Yea, forty years didst Thou sustain them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not. Who acts: Thou, commandments, clothes, feet. Nehemiah 9:21 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Nehemiah 9:21 · JPS 1917

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Yea, forty years didst Thou sustain them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.

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**Who acts:** Thou, commandments, clothes, feet · **What happens:** sustain, lack, wax, not swell · **To what, where:** commandments, wilderness, nothing

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This is Nehemiah 9:21 · 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 (Thou, commandments, clothes, feet), 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:NEH:262
# text = Yea, forty years didst Thou sustain them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.
1	Yea	yea	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	_
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	forty	forty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
5	didst	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	Thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	7	nsubj	_	_
7	sustain	sustain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	wilderness	wilderness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	lacked	lack	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
16	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	15	obj	_	_
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	20	nsubj	_	_
20	waxed	wax	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	xcomp	_	_
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
27	swelled	swell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sustain** | past · do-support | Thou | commandments *= commandment* |  | the wilderness | year |  | vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 2 | **lack** | past | commandments *= commandment* | nothing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **wax** | past | commandments's clothes |  |  |  |  | old *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **swell** | past | commandments's feet |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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 -->
וְאַרְבָּעִ֥ים שָׁנָ֛ה כִּלְכַּלְתָּ֥ם בַּמִּדְבָּ֖ר לֹ֣א חָסֵ֑רוּ שַׂלְמֹֽתֵיהֶם֙ לֹ֣א בָל֔וּ וְרַגְלֵיהֶ֖ם לֹ֥א בָצֵֽקוּ׃

[Nehemiah 9:21: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/NEH.9.21/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:NEH:262` 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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- ↑ back to [Nehemiah 9:21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/NEH.9.21/)