---
title: Psalms 143:3 (JPS 1917) — For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath crushed my life down… · tree and pragmatics
description: For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath crushed my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead. Who acts: enemy, me. Psalms 143:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 143:3 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath crushed my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** enemy, me · **What happens:** persecute, crush down, make, dwell, be · **To what, where:** soul, life, me, darkness

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This is Psalms 143:3 · 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 (enemy, me), 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:2588
# text = For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath crushed my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.
1	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	hath	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	persecuted	persecute	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	soul	soul	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	hath	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	crushed	crush	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
12	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	down	down	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	hath	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
22	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	dwell	dwell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	as	as	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	24	obl	_	_
30	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	34	nsubj	_	_
31	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
32	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	34	cop	_	_
33	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	34	advmod	_	_
34	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	acl:relcl	_	_
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed act=narrate, voice=character

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **persecute** | present · perfect | the enemy | my soul |  |  |  |  | vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent soul=Patient |
| 2 | **crush down** | present · perfect | enemy | my life |  |  |  | to the ground *result*; down *property* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent life=Patient to ground=Result |
| 3 | **make** | present · perfect | enemy | me |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **dwell** | to-infinitive | me *not said here* |  |  | darkness |  | as those | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in darkness=Location |
| 5 | **is** | present · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | dead, long *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
כִּ֥י רָ֘דַ֤ף אוֹיֵ֨ב ׀ נַפְשִׁ֗י דִּכָּ֣א לָ֭אָרֶץ חַיָּתִ֑י הוֹשִׁיבַ֥נִי בְ֝מַחֲשַׁכִּ֗ים כְּמֵתֵ֥י עוֹלָֽם׃

[Psalms 143:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.143.3/)

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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:2588` 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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- ↑ back to [Psalms 143:3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.143.3/)