---
title: Proverbs 21:25 (JPS 1917) — The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labo… · tree and pragmatics
description: The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour. Who acts: desire, hands. Proverbs 21:25 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 21:25 · JPS 1917

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The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour.

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**Who acts:** desire, hands · **What happens:** kill, refuse, not labour · **To what, where:** man

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This is Proverbs 21:25 · 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 (desire, hands), 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:613
# text = The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	desire	desire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	slothful	slothful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	nmod	_	_
6	killeth	kill	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
9	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	refuse	refuse	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	labour	labour	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	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 | **kill** | present | the desire of the slothful | man |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **refuse** | present | man's hands |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **labour** | to-infinitive | man's hands *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn work-73.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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תַּאֲוַ֣ת עָצֵ֣ל תְּמִיתֶ֑נּוּ כִּֽי־מֵאֲנ֖וּ יָדָ֣יו לַעֲשֽׂוֹת׃

[Proverbs 21:25: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.21.25/)

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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:613` 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 21:24 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.612/)
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