---
title: Isaiah 9:17 (JPS 1917) — For wickedness burneth as the fire; it devoureth the briers and thor… · tree and pragmatics
description: For wickedness burneth as the fire; it devoureth the briers and thorns; yea, it kindleth in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in thick clouds of smoke. Who acts: wickedness, briers. Isaiah 9:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Isaiah 9:17 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For wickedness burneth as the fire; it devoureth the briers and thorns; yea, it kindleth in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in thick clouds of smoke.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wickedness, briers · **What happens:** burn, devour, kindle, roll, cloud · **To what, where:** briers, thickets, thick clouds, smoke

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This is Isaiah 9:17 · 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 (wickedness, briers), 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:206
# text = For wickedness burneth as the fire; it devoureth the briers and thorns; yea, it kindleth in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in thick clouds of smoke.
1	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	wickedness	wickedness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	burneth	burn	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	advcl	_	_
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	devoureth	devour	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	briers	brier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	thorns	thorn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	_
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
15	yea	yea	INTJ	UH	_	18	discourse	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	kindleth	kindle	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	thickets	thicket	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	roll	roll	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
29	upward	upward	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	smoke	smoke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	_
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **burn** | present | wickedness |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **devour** | present | wickedness | the briers and thorns |  |  |  |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brier=Patient |
| 3 | **kindle** | present | wickedness |  |  | the thickets of the forest |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **roll** | present | briers *= brier* |  |  | thick clouds of smoke |  | upward *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in cloud=Trajectory |
| 5 | **cloud** |  |  | smoke |  |  |  |  | nom cloud «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 -->
כִּֽי־בָעֲרָ֤ה כָאֵשׁ֙ רִשְׁעָ֔ה שָׁמִ֥יר וָשַׁ֖יִת תֹּאכֵ֑ל וַתִּצַּת֙ בְּסִֽבְכֵ֣י הַיַּ֔עַר וַיִּֽתְאַבְּכ֖וּ גֵּא֥וּת עָשָֽׁן׃

[Isaiah 9:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.9.17/)

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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:206` 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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