---
title: Isaiah 18:2 (JPS 1917) — Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation tall and of glossy skin, to a p… · tree and pragmatics
description: Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation tall and of glossy skin, to a people terrible from their beginning onward; a nation that is sturdy and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide! Who acts: you, nation, rivers, people. Isaiah 18:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.377/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Nevi'im](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/) / [Isaiah](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA/) / [chapter 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA/18/) / [18:2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.18.2/) / JPS 2

# Isaiah 18:2 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation tall and of glossy skin, to a people terrible from their beginning onward; a nation that is sturdy and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, nation, rivers, people · **What happens:** go, be, tread down, divide, begin · **To what, where:** people, nation, land

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Isaiah 18:2 · 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 (you, nation, rivers, people), 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:377
# text = Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation tall and of glossy skin, to a people terrible from their beginning onward; a nation that is sturdy and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide!
1	Go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
3	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	5	nmod:poss	_	_
4	swift	swift	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	messengers	messenger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	vocative	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	nation	nation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
10	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	glossy	glossy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	_
19	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	beginning	beginning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	onward	onward	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	nation	nation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	parataxis	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
28	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	sturdy	sturdy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	acl:relcl	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	treadeth	tread	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	conj	_	_
32	down	down	ADP	RP	_	31	compound:prt	_	_
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
34	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nsubj	_	_
38	divide	divide	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
39	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: request
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed polarity=none

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | imperative | you *not said here* |  | a people | a nation |  | ye's swift messengers *vocative* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme to nation=Initial\_Location to people=Destination |
| 2 | **is** | present | a nation |  |  |  |  | sturdy *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **tread down** | present | a nation *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **divide** | present | the rivers | land |  |  |  |  | vn multiply-108-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent land=Theme |
| 5 | **begin** |  | people |  |  |  |  |  | nom beginning «event transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
הַשֹּׁלֵ֨חַ בַּיָּ֜ם צִירִ֗ים וּבִכְלֵי־גֹמֶא֮ עַל־פְּנֵי־מַיִם֒ לְכ֣וּ ׀ מַלְאָכִ֣ים קַלִּ֗ים אֶל־גּוֹי֙ מְמֻשָּׁ֣ךְ וּמוֹרָ֔ט אֶל־עַ֥ם נוֹרָ֖א מִן־ה֣וּא וָהָ֑לְאָה גּ֚וֹי קַו־קָ֣ו וּמְבוּסָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר־בָּזְא֥וּ נְהָרִ֖ים אַרְצֽוֹ׃

[Isaiah 18:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.18.2/)

<!-- .note -->
This verse in JPS 1917:

<!-- .ens -->
1. [That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters!](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.376/)
2. **Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation tall and of glossy skin, to a people terrible from their beginning onward; a nation that is sturdy and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide!**

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:ISA:377` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Isaiah 18:2 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.376/)
- next →: [Isaiah 18:3 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.378/)
- ↑ back to [Isaiah 18:2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.18.2/)