---
title: Psalms 22:16 (JPS 1917) — My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to m… · tree and pragmatics
description: My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my throat; and Thou layest me in the dust of death. Who acts: tongue, Thou. Psalms 22:16 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 22:16 · JPS 1917

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My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my throat; and Thou layest me in the dust of death.

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**Who acts:** tongue, Thou · **What happens:** dry up, cleave, lay · **To what, where:** strength, me, dust

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This is Psalms 22:16 · 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 (tongue, 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:323
# text = My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my throat; and Thou layest me in the dust of death.
1	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	strength	strength	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	dried	dry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	up	up	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	like	like	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	potsherd	potsherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	cleaveth	cleave	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	throat	throat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	Thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	20	nsubj	_	_
20	layest	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: pos
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dry up** | present · passive |  | My strength |  |  |  | like a potsherd | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Result |
| 2 | **cleave** | present | my tongue |  |  |  |  | to my throat *result* | vn break-45.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Patient to throat=Result |
| 3 | **lay** | present | Thou | me |  | the dust of death |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent i=Theme in dust=Destination |

<!-- .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 -->
יָ֘בֵ֤שׁ כַּחֶ֨רֶשׂ ׀ כֹּחִ֗י וּ֭לְשׁוֹנִימֻדְבָּ֣ק מַלְקוֹחָ֑י וְֽלַעֲפַר־מָ֥וֶת תִּשְׁפְּתֵֽנִי׃

[Psalms 22:16: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.22.16/)

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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:323` 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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