---
title: Psalms 39:6 (JPS 1917) — Behold, Thou hast made my days as hand-breadths; and mine age is as… · tree and pragmatics
description: Behold, Thou hast made my days as hand-breadths; and mine age is as nothing before Thee; surely every man at his best estate is altogether vanity. Who acts: Thou, age, man. Psalms 39:6 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 39:6 · JPS 1917

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Behold, Thou hast made my days as hand-breadths; and mine age is as nothing before Thee; surely every man at his best estate is altogether vanity.

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**Who acts:** Thou, age, man · **What happens:** make, be · **To what, where:** vanity, best estate

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This is Psalms 39:6 · 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 (Thou, age, man), 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:643
# text = Behold, Thou hast made my days as hand-breadths; and mine age is as nothing before Thee; surely every man at his best estate is altogether vanity.
1	Behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	_
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	Thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	5	nsubj	_	_
4	hast	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	made	make	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	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	as	as	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	_
11	breadths	breadth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
14	mine	mine	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	as	as	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	nothing	mine	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	5	conj	_	_
19	before	before	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	Thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	18	obl	_	_
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
22	surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
23	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	24	det	_	_
24	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	28	amod	_	_
28	estate	estate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
29	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
30	altogether	altogether	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	vanity	vanity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: express
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=express

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | present · perfect | Thou |  |  |  | day | as hand breadths | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 2 | **is** | present | mine age |  |  |  | before Thee | as nothing | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | present | every man | vanity |  | man's best estate |  | altogether, surely *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 -->
הִנֵּ֤ה טְפָח֨וֹת ׀ נָ֘תַ֤תָּה יָמַ֗י וְחֶלְדִּ֣י כְאַ֣יִן נֶגְדֶּ֑ךָ אַ֥ךְ כָּֽל־הֶ֥בֶל כָּל־אָ֝דָ֗ם נִצָּ֥ב סֶֽלָה׃

[Psalms 39:6: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.39.6/)

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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:643` 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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- ← previous: [Psalms 39:5 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PSA.642/)
- next →: [Psalms 39:7 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PSA.644/)
- ↑ back to [Psalms 39:6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.39.6/)