---
title: Proverbs 17:18 (JPS 1917) — A man void of understanding is he that striketh hands, and becometh… · tree and pragmatics
description: A man void of understanding is he that striketh hands, and becometh surety in the presence of his neighbour. Who acts: man. Proverbs 17:18 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 17:18 · JPS 1917

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A man void of understanding is he that striketh hands, and becometh surety in the presence of his neighbour.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** be, strike, become · **To what, where:** brother, hands, surety, presence

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This is Proverbs 17:18 · 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 (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:494
# text = A man void of understanding is he that striketh hands, and becometh surety in the presence of his neighbour.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	void	void	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	understanding	understanding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	0	root	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	striketh	strike	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	becometh	become	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
14	surety	surety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	xcomp	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	presence	presence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: narrate
- 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 | **is a** | present | a man | brother |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **strike** | present |  | hands |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Patient |
| 3 | **become** | present |  | surety |  |  |  | in the presence of brother's neighbour *result* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in presence=Result |

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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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אָדָ֣ם חֲסַר־לֵ֭ב תּוֹקֵ֣עַ כָּ֑ף עֹרֵ֥ב עֲ֝רֻבָּ֗ה לִפְנֵ֥י רֵעֵֽהוּ׃

[Proverbs 17:18: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.17.18/)

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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:494` 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 17:17 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.493/)
- next →: [Proverbs 17:19 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.495/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 17:18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.17.18/)