---
title: Proverbs 21:1 (JPS 1917) — The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD as the watercourses: He… · tree and pragmatics
description: The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD as the watercourses: He turneth it whithersoever He will. Who acts: heart, king. Proverbs 21:1 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 21:1 · JPS 1917

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The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD as the watercourses: He turneth it whithersoever He will.

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**Who acts:** heart, king · **What happens:** be, turn · **To what, where:** hand, heart

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This is Proverbs 21:1 · 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 (heart, king), 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:589
# text = The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD as the watercourses: He turneth it whithersoever He will.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
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	0	root	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	as	as	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	watercourses	watercourse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
15	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
16	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	turneth	turn	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	whithersoever	whithersoever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	17	advmod	_	_
20	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- 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** | present | the king's heart |  |  | the hand |  | of the LORD; as the watercourses | tree rules |
| 2 | **turn** | present | king | heart |  |  |  | whithersoever *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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}

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פַּלְגֵי־מַ֣יִם לֶב־מֶ֭לֶךְ בְּיַד־יְהוָ֑ה עַֽל־כָּל־אֲשֶׁ֖ר יַחְפֹּ֣ץ יַטֶּֽנּוּ׃

[Proverbs 21:1: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.21.1/)

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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:589` 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 20:30 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.588/)
- next →: [Proverbs 21:2 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.590/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 21:1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.21.1/)