---
title: Isaiah 45:9 (JPS 1917) — Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it: 'What makest thou?' Or:… · tree and pragmatics
description: Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it: 'What makest thou?' Or: 'Thy work, it hath no hands'? Who acts: clay, Thy. Isaiah 45:9 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Isaiah 45:9 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2

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Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it: 'What makest thou?' Or: 'Thy work, it hath no hands'?

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**Who acts:** clay, Thy · **What happens:** say, fashion, make, have, work · **To what, where:** LORD, clay, hands · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Isaiah 45:9 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2 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 (clay, Thy), 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:ISA:1011
# text = Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it: 'What makest thou?' Or: 'Thy work, it hath no hands'?
1	Shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	clay	clay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
8	fashioned	fashion	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
11	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	_
12	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	nsubj	_	_
13	makest	make	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
14	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	13	nsubj	_	_
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
16	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
17	Or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
18	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
19	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	_
20	Thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	dislocated	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	hath	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
25	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	26	det	_	_
26	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
27	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | shall | the clay |  | LORD |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient |
| 2 | **fashion** | past |  | clay |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Product |
| 3 | **make** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material |
| 4 | **have** | present | clay | no hands |  |  |  | Thy work *dislocated* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Patient |
| 5 | **work** |  | Thy |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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ה֗וֹי רָ֚ב אֶת־יֹ֣צְר֔וֹ חֶ֖רֶשׂ אֶת־חַרְשֵׂ֣י אֲדָמָ֑ה הֲיֹאמַ֨רחֹ֤מֶר לְיֹֽצְרוֹ֙ מַֽה־תַּעֲשֶׂ֔ה וּפָעָלְךָ֖ אֵין־יָדַ֥יִם לֽוֹ׃ס

[Isaiah 45:9: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.45.9/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. [Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker, as a potsherd with the potsherds of the earth!](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.1010/)
2. **Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it: 'What makest thou?' Or: 'Thy work, it hath no hands'?**

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:ISA:1011` 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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