---
title: Proverbs 17:16 (JPS 1917) — Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, seei… · tree and pragmatics
description: Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, seeing he hath no understanding? Who acts: price. Proverbs 17:16 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 17:16 · JPS 1917

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Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, seeing he hath no understanding?

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**Who acts:** price · **What happens:** be, buy, have · **To what, where:** wisdom, understanding

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This is Proverbs 17:16 · 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 (price), 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:492
# text = Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, seeing he hath no understanding?
1	Wherefore	wherefore	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	price	price	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl	_	_
14	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	seeing	see	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	hath	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
19	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	20	det	_	_
20	understanding	understanding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- 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 | **be** | present | a price in the hand of a fool |  |  | there |  | wherefore *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **buy** | to-infinitive | a price in the hand of a fool *not said here* | wisdom |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wisdom=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | present | price | no understanding |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent understanding=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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לָמָּה־זֶּ֣ה מְחִ֣יר בְּיַד־כְּסִ֑יל לִקְנ֖וֹת חָכְמָ֣ה וְלֶב־אָֽיִן׃

[Proverbs 17:16: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.17.16/)

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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:492` 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 17:15 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.491/)
- next →: [Proverbs 17:17 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.493/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 17:16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.17.16/)