---
title: Proverbs 16:9 (JPS 1917) — A man's heart deviseth his way; but the LORD directeth his steps. · tree and pragmatics
description: A man's heart deviseth his way; but the LORD directeth his steps. Who acts: heart, LORD. Proverbs 16:9 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 16:9 · JPS 1917

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A man's heart deviseth his way; but the LORD directeth his steps.

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**Who acts:** heart, LORD · **What happens:** devise, direct, step · **To what, where:** way, steps

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This is Proverbs 16:9 · 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 (heart, LORD), 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:452
# text = A man's heart deviseth his way; but the LORD directeth his steps.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	deviseth	devise	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	directeth	direct	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- 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 | **devise** | present | a man's heart | heart's way |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Patient |
| 2 | **direct** | present | the LORD | LORD's steps |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: agent=Agent step=Eventuality |
| 3 | **step** |  | LORD |  |  |  |  |  | nom step «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
לֵ֣ב אָ֭דָם יְחַשֵּׁ֣ב דַּרְכּ֑וֹ וַֽ֝יהוָ֗ה יָכִ֥ין צַעֲדֽוֹ׃

[Proverbs 16:9: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.16.9/)

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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:452` 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 16:8 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.451/)
- next →: [Proverbs 16:10 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.453/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 16:9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.16.9/)