---
title: Psalms 68:3 (JPS 1917) — As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melteth before t… · tree and pragmatics
description: As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. Who acts: you, wicked. Psalms 68:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 68:3 · JPS 1917

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As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

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**Who acts:** you, wicked · **What happens:** drive away, melt, let, perish · **To what, where:** smoke, enemies, presence

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This is Psalms 68:3 · 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, wicked), 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:PSA:1092
# text = As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	smoke	smoke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	driven	drive	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	advcl	_	_
5	away	away	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
7	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	drive	drive	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	away	away	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	wax	wax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	melteth	melt	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
15	before	before	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	wicked	wicked	NOUN	NN	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
23	perish	perish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	presence	presence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: command
- act: request
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=imp

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drive away** | present · passive |  | smoke |  |  |  | away *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP»: subject=Trajectory |
| 2 | **drive away** | imperative | you *not said here* | enemies *= enemy* |  |  |  | away *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme they=Trajectory |
| 3 | **melt** | present |  |  |  |  | before the fire |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **let** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **perish** | infinitive | the wicked |  |  | the presence of God |  |  | vn break\_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient |

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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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כְּהִנְדֹּ֥ף עָשָׁ֗ן תִּ֫נְדֹּ֥ף כְּהִמֵּ֣ס דּ֭וֹנַג מִפְּנֵי־אֵ֑שׁ יֹאבְד֥וּ רְ֝שָׁעִ֗ים מִפְּנֵ֥י אֱלֹהִֽים׃

[Psalms 68:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.68.3/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:PSA:1092` 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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