---
title: Proverbs 18:17 (JPS 1917) — He that pleadeth his cause first seemeth just; but his neighbour com… · tree and pragmatics
description: He that pleadeth his cause first seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him out. Who acts: gift, neighbour. Proverbs 18:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 18:17 · JPS 1917

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He that pleadeth his cause first seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him out.

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**Who acts:** gift, neighbour · **What happens:** plead, seem, come, search out, cause · **To what, where:** cause, gift

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This is Proverbs 18:17 · 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 (gift, neighbour), 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:521
# text = He that pleadeth his cause first seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him out.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
2	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	3	nsubj	_	_
3	pleadeth	plead	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	first	first	ADV	RB	NumType=Ord	3	advmod	_	_
7	seemeth	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	just	just	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	xcomp	_	_
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	cometh	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	searcheth	search	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	out	out	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **plead** *speech: request* | present |  | gift's cause |  |  |  | first *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **seem** | present | gift |  |  |  |  | just *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **come** | present | gift's neighbour |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **search out** | present | gift's neighbour *not said here* | gift |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent he=Location |
| 5 | **cause** |  | gift |  |  |  |  |  | nom cause «event transitive»: poss=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 -->
צַדִּ֣יק הָרִאשׁ֣וֹן בְּרִיב֑וֹ וּבָֽא־רֵ֝עֵ֗הוּ וַחֲקָרֽוֹ׃

[Proverbs 18:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.18.17/)

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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:521` 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 18:16 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.520/)
- next →: [Proverbs 18:18 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.522/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 18:17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.18.17/)