---
title: Psalms 124:2 (JPS 1917) — 'If it had not been the LORD who was for us, when men rose up agains… · tree and pragmatics
description: 'If it had not been the LORD who was for us, when men rose up against us, Who acts: Song, LORD, men. Psalms 124:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 124:2 · JPS 1917

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'If it had not been the LORD who was for us, when men rose up against us,

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**Who acts:** Song, LORD, men · **What happens:** not be, be, rise up · **To what, where:** LORD

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This is Psalms 124:2 · 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 (Song, LORD, men), 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:2375
# text = 'If it had not been the LORD who was for us, when men rose up against us,
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	_
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
6	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	cop	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	acl:relcl	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	16	mark	_	_
15	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	rose	rise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
17	up	up	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	against	against	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past · perfect | Song | the LORD |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the LORD |  |  |  |  | for us | tree rules |
| 3 | **rise up** | past | men |  |  |  |  | against us | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent against we=Location |

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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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לוּלֵ֣י יְ֭הוָה שֶׁהָ֣יָה לָ֑נוּ בְּק֖וּם עָלֵ֣ינוּ אָדָֽם׃

[Psalms 124:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.124.2/)

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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:2375` 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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