---
title: Psalms 58:9 (JPS 1917) — Let them be as a snail which melteth and passeth away; like the unti… · tree and pragmatics
description: Let them be as a snail which melteth and passeth away; like the untimely births of a woman, that have not seen the sun. Who acts: you, teeth, snail, untimely births. Psalms 58:9 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 58:9 · JPS 1917

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Let them be as a snail which melteth and passeth away; like the untimely births of a woman, that have not seen the sun.

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**Who acts:** you, teeth, snail, untimely births · **What happens:** let, be, melt, pass away, not see · **To what, where:** teeth, sun.

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This is Psalms 58:9 · 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 (you, teeth, snail, untimely births), 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:954
# text = Let them be as a snail which melteth and passeth away; like the untimely births of a woman, that have not seen the sun.
1	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
2	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
4	as	as	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	snail	snail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	xcomp	_	_
7	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
8	melteth	melt	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	passeth	pass	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
11	away	away	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
13	like	like	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	untimely	untimely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	births	birth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	advcl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	acl:relcl	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	sun.	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- 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 | **let** | imperative | you *not said here* | teeth *= tooth* |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | infinitive | teeth *= tooth* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as a snail | tree rules |
| 3 | **melt** | present | a snail |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **pass away** | present | a snail *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **not** **see** | present · perfect | the untimely births of a woman | the sun. |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sun=Stimulus |

<!-- .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}

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כְּמ֣וֹ שַׁ֭בְּלוּל תֶּ֣מֶס יַהֲלֹ֑ךְ נֵ֥פֶל אֵ֝֗שֶׁת בַּל־חָ֥זוּ שָֽׁמֶשׁ׃

[Psalms 58:9: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.58.9/)

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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:954` 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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