---
title: Psalms 137:8 (JPS 1917) — O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed; happy shall he be,… · tree and pragmatics
description: O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that repayeth thee as thou hast served us. Who acts: Babylon, thou. Psalms 137:8 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PSA.2512/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Ketuvim](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/) / [Psalms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA/) / [chapter 137](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA/137/) / [137:8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.137.8/) / JPS 1

# Psalms 137:8 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that repayeth thee as thou hast served us.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Babylon, thou · **What happens:** destroy, be, repay, serve · **To what, where:** daughter, thee, us

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Psalms 137:8 · 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 (Babylon, thou), 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:2512
# text = O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that repayeth thee as thou hast served us.
1	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	2	discourse	_	_
2	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	Babylon	Babylon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	art	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	destroyed	destroy	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl:relcl	_	_
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
12	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
13	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	cop	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
18	repayeth	repay	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
19	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	18	obj	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	23	nsubj	_	_
22	hast	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	served	serve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
24	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: other
- voice: character
- polarity: pos
- teacher: changed act=other

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **destroy** | present · passive |  | daughter of Babylon |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | shall | Babylon |  |  |  |  | happy *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **repay** | present |  | thee |  |  |  |  | vn equip-13.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent thou=Recipient |
| 4 | **serve** | present · perfect | thou | us |  |  |  |  | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Attribute |

<!-- .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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
בַּת־בָּבֶ֗ל הַשְּׁד֫וּדָ֥ה אַשְׁרֵ֥י שֶׁיְשַׁלֶּם־לָ֑ךְ אֶת־גְּ֝מוּלֵ֗ךְ שֶׁגָּמַ֥לְתְּ לָֽנוּ׃

[Psalms 137:8: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.137.8/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:PSA:2512` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Psalms 137:7 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PSA.2511/)
- next →: [Psalms 137:9 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PSA.2513/)
- ↑ back to [Psalms 137:8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.137.8/)