---
title: Proverbs 21:23 (JPS 1917) — Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles. · tree and pragmatics
description: Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles. Who acts: Whoso, tongue. Proverbs 21:23 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.611/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Ketuvim](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/) / [Proverbs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO/) / [chapter 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO/21/) / [21:23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.21.23/) / JPS 1

# Proverbs 21:23 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Whoso, tongue · **What happens:** keep · **To what, where:** mouth, soul, troubles

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Proverbs 21:23 · 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 (Whoso, tongue), 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:611
# text = Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.
1	Whoso	whoso	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	2	nsubj	_	_
2	keepeth	keep	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	keepeth	keep	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	soul	soul	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	troubles	trouble	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed voice=character

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | present | Whoso | man's mouth |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mouth=Theme |
| 2 | **keep** | present | man's tongue | man's soul |  | troubles |  |  | vn forbid-64.4 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer soul=Beneficiary from trouble=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 -->
שֹׁמֵ֣ר פִּ֭יו וּלְשׁוֹנ֑וֹ שֹׁמֵ֖ר מִצָּר֣וֹת נַפְשֽׁוֹ׃

[Proverbs 21:23: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.21.23/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:PRO:611` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Proverbs 21:22 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.610/)
- next →: [Proverbs 21:24 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.612/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 21:23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.21.23/)