---
title: Proverbs 25:21 (JPS 1917) — If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he be thirst… · tree and pragmatics
description: If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink; Who acts: enemy, you, foot. Proverbs 25:21 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 25:21 · JPS 1917

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If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink;

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**Who acts:** enemy, you, foot · **What happens:** be, give, eat, drink · **To what, where:** bread, foot, water

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This is Proverbs 25:21 · 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 (enemy, you, foot), 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:742
# text = If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink;
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	thine	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	Mood=Sub|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	advcl	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	give	give	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	iobj	_	_
9	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	Mood=Sub|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	thirsty	thirsty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	advcl	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	give	give	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	iobj	_	_
21	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	acl	_	_
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: request
- 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** *a condition, not said to happen* | infinitive | thine enemy |  |  |  |  | hungry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **give** | imperative | you *not said here* | bread | foot |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient bread=Theme |
| 3 | **eat** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | bread *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | infinitive | foot |  |  |  |  | thirsty *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **give** | infinitive | you *not said here* | water | foot |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient water=Theme |
| 6 | **drink** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | water *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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אִם־רָעֵ֣ב שֹׂ֭נַאֲךָ הַאֲכִלֵ֣הוּ לָ֑חֶם וְאִם־צָ֝מֵ֗א הַשְׁקֵ֥הוּ מָֽיִם׃

[Proverbs 25:21: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.25.21/)

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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:742` 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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- ↑ back to [Proverbs 25:21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.25.21/)