---
title: Proverbs 10:21 (JPS 1917) — The lips of the righteous feed many; but the foolish die for want of… · tree and pragmatics
description: The lips of the righteous feed many; but the foolish die for want of understanding. Who acts: lips, foolish. Proverbs 10:21 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 10:21 · JPS 1917

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The lips of the righteous feed many; but the foolish die for want of understanding.

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**Who acts:** lips, foolish · **What happens:** feed, die, want · **To what, where:** many, understanding

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This is Proverbs 10:21 · 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 (lips, foolish), 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:PRO:279
# text = The lips of the righteous feed many; but the foolish die for want of understanding.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	lips	lip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	righteous	righteous	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	feed	feed	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	many	many	PRON	NNS	Number=Plur|PronType=Ind	6	obj	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	foolish	foolish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	die	die	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	want	want	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	understanding	understanding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	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 | **feed** | present | the lips of the righteous | many |  |  |  |  | vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent many=Recipient |
| 2 | **die** | present | the foolish |  |  |  |  | for want of understanding | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for want=Theme |
| 3 | **want** |  |  | understanding |  |  |  |  | nom want «state transitive»: of=patient |

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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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שִׂפְתֵ֣י צַ֭דִּיק יִרְע֣וּ רַבִּ֑ים וֶֽ֝אֱוִילִ֗ים בַּחֲסַר־לֵ֥ב יָמֽוּתוּ׃

[Proverbs 10:21: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.10.21/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:PRO:279` 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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- ← previous: [Proverbs 10:20 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.278/)
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