---
title: Isaiah 24:20 (JPS 1917) — The earth reeleth to and fro like a drunken man, and swayeth to and… · tree and pragmatics
description: The earth reeleth to and fro like a drunken man, and swayeth to and fro as a lodge; and the transgression thereof is heavy upon it, and it shall fall, and not rise again. Who acts: earth, transgression. Isaiah 24:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Isaiah 24:20 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The earth reeleth to and fro like a drunken man, and swayeth to and fro as a lodge; and the transgression thereof is heavy upon it, and it shall fall, and not rise again.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** earth, transgression · **What happens:** reel, sway, be, fall, not rise

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This is Isaiah 24:20 · 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 (earth, transgression), 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:507
# text = The earth reeleth to and fro like a drunken man, and swayeth to and fro as a lodge; and the transgression thereof is heavy upon it, and it shall fall, and not rise again.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	reeleth	reel	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	fro	fro	ADV	RB	_	4	conj	_	_
7	like	like	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	drunken	drunken	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	swayeth	sway	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
14	to	to	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	fro	fro	ADV	RB	_	14	conj	_	_
17	as	as	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	lodge	lodge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	transgression	transgression	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
24	thereof	thereof	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
26	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
27	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	_
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	_
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
36	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	37	advmod	_	_
37	rise	rise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	conj	_	_
38	again	again	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reel** | present | the earth |  |  |  |  | like a drunken man | vn tingle-40.8.2 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **sway** | present | the earth *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as a lodge | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | present | the transgression |  |  |  |  | upon earth; heavy *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **fall** | shall | earth |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **rise** | infinitive | earth *not said here* |  |  |  | again |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=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 -->
נ֣וֹעַ תָּנ֤וּעַ אֶ֙רֶץ֙ כַּשִּׁכּ֔וֹר וְהִֽתְנוֹדְדָ֖ה כַּמְּלוּנָ֑ה וְכָבַ֤ד עָלֶ֙יהָ֙ פִּשְׁעָ֔הּ וְנָפְלָ֖ה וְלֹא־תֹסִ֥יף קֽוּם׃ס

[Isaiah 24:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.24.20/)

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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:507` 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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