---
title: Isaiah 5:20 (JPS 1917) — Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that change darkne… · tree and pragmatics
description: Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that change darkness into light, and light into darkness; that change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter! Who acts: Woe. Isaiah 5:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Isaiah 5:20 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that change darkness into light, and light into darkness; that change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Woe · **What happens:** call, change · **To what, where:** darkness, light, sweet · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Isaiah 5:20 · 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 (Woe), 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:110
# text = Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that change darkness into light, and light into darkness; that change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter!
1	Woe	woe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
2	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	nmod	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	call	call	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
6	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	nsubj	_	_
7	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	advmod	_	_
11	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
14	change	change	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
15	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
16	into	into	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	_
21	into	into	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
25	change	change	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
26	bitter	bitter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	_
27	into	into	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	sweet	sweet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	obl	_	_
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	sweet	sweet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	conj	_	_
32	into	into	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	bitter	bitter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	obl	_	_
34	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: exclamation
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: neg
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** | present | Woe unto lambs |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **change** | present | Woe unto lambs | darkness |  |  |  | into light *result* | vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: agent=Agent darkness=Patient into light=Result |
| 3 | **change** | present | Woe unto lambs |  |  |  |  | into sweet *result*; bitter *property* | vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.result»: agent=Patient into sweet=Result |

<!-- .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 -->
ה֣וֹי הָאֹמְרִ֥ים לָרַ֛ע ט֖וֹב וְלַטּ֣וֹב רָ֑ע שָׂמִ֨ים חֹ֤שֶׁךְ לְאוֹר֙ וְא֣וֹר לְחֹ֔שֶׁךְ שָׂמִ֥ים מַ֛ר לְמָת֖וֹק וּמָת֥וֹק לְמָֽר׃ס

[Isaiah 5:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.5.20/)

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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:110` 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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- ← previous: [Isaiah 5:19 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.109/)
- next →: [Isaiah 5:21 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.111/)
- ↑ back to [Isaiah 5:20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.5.20/)