---
title: Habakkuk 1:4 (JPS 1917) — Therefore the law is slacked, and right doth never go forth; for the… · tree and pragmatics
description: Therefore the law is slacked, and right doth never go forth; for the wicked doth beset the righteous; therefore right goeth forth perverted. Who acts: right, wicked. Habakkuk 1:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Habakkuk 1:4 · JPS 1917

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Therefore the law is slacked, and right doth never go forth; for the wicked doth beset the righteous; therefore right goeth forth perverted.

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**Who acts:** right, wicked · **What happens:** slack, not go, beset, go, pervert · **To what, where:** law, righteous

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This is Habakkuk 1:4 · 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 (right, wicked), 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:HAB:5
# text = Therefore the law is slacked, and right doth never go forth; for the wicked doth beset the righteous; therefore right goeth forth perverted.
1	Therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	slacked	slack	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	right	right	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
9	doth	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
12	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	wicked	wicked	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	doth	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	beset	beset	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	righteous	righteous	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
22	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
23	right	right	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	goeth	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
25	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	perverted	pervert	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	xcomp	_	_
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **slack** | present · passive |  | the law |  |  |  | therefore *property* | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **not** **go** | present · do-support | right |  |  |  |  | forth *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **beset** | present · do-support | the wicked | the righteous |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **go** | present | right |  |  |  |  | forth, therefore *property* | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **pervert** | participle | right *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | 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 -->
עַל־כֵּן֙ תָּפ֣וּג תּוֹרָ֔ה וְלֹֽא־יֵצֵ֥א לָנֶ֖צַח מִשְׁפָּ֑ט כִּ֤י רָשָׁע֙ מַכְתִּ֣יר אֶת־הַצַּדִּ֔יק עַל־כֵּ֛ן יֵצֵ֥א מִשְׁפָּ֖ט מְעֻקָּֽל׃

[Habakkuk 1:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/HAB.1.4/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:HAB:5` 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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