---
title: Proverbs 17:12 (JPS 1917) — Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in hi… · tree and pragmatics
description: Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly. Who acts: you, bear. Proverbs 17:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.488/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Ketuvim](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/) / [Proverbs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO/) / [chapter 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO/17/) / [17:12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.17.12/) / JPS 1

# Proverbs 17:12 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, bear · **What happens:** let, rob, meet · **To what, where:** bear, whelps, man

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Proverbs 17:12 · 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 (you, bear), 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:488
# text = Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.
1	Let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	bear	bear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
4	robbed	rob	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	whelps	whelp	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
8	meet	meet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	xcomp	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	rather	rather	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	15	cc	_	_
13	than	than	ADP	IN	_	12	fixed	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	folly	folly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | imperative | you *not said here* | a bear |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **rob** | participle | a bear *not said here* | messenger's whelps |  |  |  |  | vn cheat-10.6.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **meet** | infinitive | a bear *not said here* | a man rather a fool in speech's folly |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Co-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 -->
פָּג֬וֹשׁ דֹּ֣ב שַׁכּ֣וּל בְּאִ֑ישׁ וְאַל־כְּ֝סִ֗יל בְּאִוַּלְתּֽוֹ׃

[Proverbs 17:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.17.12/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:PRO:488` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Proverbs 17:11 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.487/)
- next →: [Proverbs 17:13 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.489/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 17:12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.17.12/)