---
title: Proverbs 21:3 (JPS 1917) — To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than… · tree and pragmatics
description: To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. Proverbs 21:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 21:3 · JPS 1917

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To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

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**What happens:** do, be · **To what, where:** righteousness

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This is Proverbs 21:3 · 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: 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:591
# text = To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	csubj	_	_
3	righteousness	righteousness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	justice	justice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	8	advmod	_	_
8	acceptable	acceptable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	than	than	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	sacrifice	sacrifice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
14	.	.	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 | **do** | to-infinitive |  | righteousness and justice |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent righteousness=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | to the LORD; than sacrifice; acceptable *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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עֲ֭שֹׂה צְדָקָ֣ה וּמִשְׁפָּ֑ט נִבְחָ֖ר לַיהוָ֣ה מִזָּֽבַח׃

[Proverbs 21:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.21.3/)

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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:591` 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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