---
title: Song of Songs 5:13 (JPS 1917) — His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as banks of sweet herbs; his lips… · tree and pragmatics
description: His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as banks of sweet herbs; his lips are as lilies, dropping with flowing myrrh. Who acts: cheeks, lips, lilies. Song of Songs 5:13 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Song of Songs 5:13 · JPS 1917

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His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as banks of sweet herbs; his lips are as lilies, dropping with flowing myrrh.

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**Who acts:** cheeks, lips, lilies · **What happens:** be, drop, flow

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This is Song of Songs 5:13 · 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 (cheeks, lips, lilies), 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:SNG:81
# text = His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as banks of sweet herbs; his lips are as lilies, dropping with flowing myrrh.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	cheeks	cheek	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	as	as	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	spices	spice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	banks	bank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	sweet	sweet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	herbs	herb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	_
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	lips	lip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
18	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	as	as	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	lilies	lily	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	parataxis	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	dropping	drop	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	acl	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	flowing	flow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	amod	_	_
25	myrrh	myrrh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: pos
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | beloved's cheeks |  |  |  |  | as a bed; of spices; as banks of sweet herbs | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | beloved's lips |  |  |  |  | as lilies | tree rules |
| 3 | **drop** | gerund | lilies *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with flowing myrrh | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **flow** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=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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לְחָיָו֙ כַּעֲרוּגַ֣ת הַבֹּ֔שֶׂם מִגְדְּל֖וֹת מֶרְקָחִ֑ים שִׂפְתוֹתָיו֙ שֽׁוֹשַׁנִּ֔ים נֹטְפ֖וֹת מ֥וֹר עֹבֵֽר׃

[Song of Songs 5:13: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/SNG.5.13/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:SNG:81` 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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