---
title: Proverbs 17:11 (JPS 1917) — A rebellious man seeketh only evil; therefore a cruel messenger shal… · tree and pragmatics
description: A rebellious man seeketh only evil; therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him. Who acts: rebellious man. Proverbs 17:11 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 17:11 · JPS 1917

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A rebellious man seeketh only evil; therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.

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**Who acts:** rebellious man · **What happens:** seek, send · **To what, where:** evil, cruel messenger

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This is Proverbs 17:11 · 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 (rebellious man), 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:487
# text = A rebellious man seeketh only evil; therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	rebellious	rebellious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	seeketh	seek	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	only	only	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	evil	evil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
8	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	cruel	cruel	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	messenger	messenger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	sent	send	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
15	against	against	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	_
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed act=assert, voice=narrator

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seek** | present | a rebellious man | evil |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent evil=Theme |
| 2 | **send** | shall · passive |  | a cruel messenger |  |  |  | against speech; therefore *property* | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

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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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אַךְ־מְרִ֥י יְבַקֶּשׁ־רָ֑ע וּמַלְאָ֥ךְ אַ֝כְזָרִ֗י יְשֻׁלַּח־בּֽוֹ׃

[Proverbs 17:11: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.17.11/)

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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:487` 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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