---
title: Psalms 59:12 (JPS 1917) — Slay them not, lest my people forget, make them wander to and fro by… · tree and pragmatics
description: Slay them not, lest my people forget, make them wander to and fro by Thy power, and bring them down, O Lord our shield. Who acts: you, people, nations. Psalms 59:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 59:12 · JPS 1917

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Slay them not, lest my people forget, make them wander to and fro by Thy power, and bring them down, O Lord our shield.

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**Who acts:** you, people, nations · **What happens:** not slay, forget, make, wander, bring down · **To what, where:** nations

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This is Psalms 59:12 · 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, people, nations), 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:970
# text = Slay them not, lest my people forget, make them wander to and fro by Thy power, and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
1	Slay	slay	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	1	advmod	_	_
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
8	forget	forget	VERB	VBP	Mood=Sub|VerbForm=Fin	1	advcl	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	make	make	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	wander	wander	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	to	to	ADV	IN	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	fro	fro	ADV	RB	_	13	conj	_	_
16	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	Thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	bring	bring	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	down	down	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	26	discourse	_	_
26	Lord	Lord	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	vocative	_	_
27	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	shield	shield	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	appos	_	_
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: command
- act: request
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **slay** | imperative | you *not said here* | nations *= nation* |  |  |  | Lord *vocative* | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 2 | **forget** | present | my people |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **make** | infinitive | you *not said here* | nations *= nation* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **wander** | infinitive | nations *= nation* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by Thy power | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by power=Trajectory |
| 5 | **bring down** | infinitive | you *not said here* | nations *= nation* |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

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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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אַל־תַּהַרְגֵ֤ם ׀ פֶּֽן־יִשְׁכְּח֬וּ עַמִּ֗י הֲנִיעֵ֣מוֹ בְ֭חֵילְךָ וְהוֹרִידֵ֑מוֹ מָֽגִנֵּ֣נוּ אֲדֹנָֽי׃

[Psalms 59:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.59.12/)

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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:970` 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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