---
title: Proverbs 26:17 (JPS 1917) — He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife not his own, is like on… · tree and pragmatics
description: He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife not his own, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears. Who acts: sluggard. Proverbs 26:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 26:17 · JPS 1917

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He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife not his own, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.

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**Who acts:** sluggard · **What happens:** pass by, meddle, be, take · **To what, where:** dog

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This is Proverbs 26:17 · 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 (sluggard), 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:766
# text = He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife not his own, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
2	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	3	nsubj	_	_
3	passeth	pass	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	meddleth	meddle	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	strife	strife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	like	like	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	one	one	PRON	NN	_	0	root	_	_
17	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
18	taketh	take	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: pos
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass by** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **meddle** | present |  |  |  |  |  | with strife | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | sluggard |  |  |  |  | like one | tree rules |
| 4 | **take** | present |  |  | a dog |  |  | by the ears | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument dog=Destination |

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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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מַחֲזִ֥יק בְּאָזְנֵי־כָ֑לֶב עֹבֵ֥ר מִ֝תְעַבֵּ֗ר עַל־רִ֥יב לֹּֽא־לֽוֹ׃

[Proverbs 26:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.26.17/)

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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:766` 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 26:16 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.765/)
- next →: [Proverbs 26:18 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.767/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 26:17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.26.17/)