---
title: Proverbs 24:28 (JPS 1917) — Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and deceive no… · tree and pragmatics
description: Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and deceive not with thy lips. Who acts: you. Proverbs 24:28 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 24:28 · JPS 1917

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Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and deceive not with thy lips.

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** not be, not deceive · **To what, where:** witness

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This is Proverbs 24:28 · 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 (you), 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:715
# text = Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and deceive not with thy lips.
1	Be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	cop	_	_
2	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	witness	witness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	against	against	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	without	without	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	deceive	deceive	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	lips	lip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | imperative | you *not said here* | a witness |  |  |  | against thy neighbour; without cause | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **deceive** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with thy lips | vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: 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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
אַל־תְּהִ֣י עֵד־חִנָּ֣ם בְּרֵעֶ֑ךָ וַ֝הֲפִתִּ֗יתָ בִּשְׂפָתֶֽיךָ׃

[Proverbs 24:28: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.24.28/)

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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:715` 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 24:27 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.714/)
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