---
title: Proverbs 16:17 (JPS 1917) — The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; he that keepeth h… · tree and pragmatics
description: The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul. Who acts: highway, king. Proverbs 16:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 16:17 · JPS 1917

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The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul.

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**Who acts:** highway, king · **What happens:** be, keep, preserve · **To what, where:** evil, way, soul

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This is Proverbs 16:17 · 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 (highway, king), 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:460
# text = The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	highway	highway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	upright	upright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	nmod	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	depart	depart	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	from	from	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	evil	evil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
14	keepeth	keep	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	preserveth	preserve	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	soul	soul	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed polarity=none

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the highway of the upright |  |  | evil |  | depart *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **keep** | present |  | king's way |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Theme |
| 3 | **preserve** | present | king | king's soul |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent soul=Beneficiary |

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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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מְסִלַּ֣ת יְ֭שָׁרִים ס֣וּר מֵרָ֑ע שֹׁמֵ֥ר נַ֝פְשׁ֗וֹ נֹצֵ֥ר דַּרְכּֽוֹ׃

[Proverbs 16:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.16.17/)

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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:460` 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 16:16 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.459/)
- next →: [Proverbs 16:18 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.461/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 16:17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.16.17/)