---
title: Psalms 78:39 (JPS 1917) — So He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away,… · tree and pragmatics
description: So He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. Who acts: God, streams, wind. Psalms 78:39 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 78:39 · JPS 1917

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So He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

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**Who acts:** God, streams, wind · **What happens:** remember, be, pass away, not come · **To what, where:** flesh

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This is Psalms 78:39 · 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 (God, streams, wind), 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:1366
# text = So He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	remembered	remember	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	but	but	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	flesh	flesh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	_
12	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	passeth	pass	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
14	away	away	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	cometh	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
18	not	not	ADV	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
19	again	again	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed polarity=neg

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **remember** | past | God |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | streams *= stream* | flesh |  |  |  | but *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **pass away** | present | a wind |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **come** | present | a wind *not said here* |  |  |  | again |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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וַ֭יִּזְכֹּר כִּי־בָשָׂ֣ר הֵ֑מָּה ר֥וּחַ ה֝וֹלֵ֗ךְ וְלֹ֣א יָשֽׁוּב׃

[Psalms 78:39: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.78.39/)

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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:1366` 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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