---
title: Isaiah 38:18 (JPS 1917) — For the nether-world cannot praise Thee, death cannot celebrate Thee… · tree and pragmatics
description: For the nether-world cannot praise Thee, death cannot celebrate Thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth. Who acts: nether world, death, sins. Isaiah 38:18 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Isaiah 38:18 · JPS 1917

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For the nether-world cannot praise Thee, death cannot celebrate Thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth.

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**Who acts:** nether world, death, sins · **What happens:** not praise, not celebrate, go down, not hope · **To what, where:** Thee, pit

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This is Isaiah 38:18 · 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 (nether world, death, sins), 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:823
# text = For the nether-world cannot praise Thee, death cannot celebrate Thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth.
1	For	for	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	nether	nether	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	_
5	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
6	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	praise	praise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	Thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	8	obj	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
11	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	celebrate	celebrate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	parataxis	_	_
15	Thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	14	obj	_	_
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
19	go	go	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
20	down	down	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	into	into	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	pit	pit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	hope	hope	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	parataxis	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	Thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **praise** | can | the nether world | Thee |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thou=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **celebrate** | can | death | Thee |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thou=Theme |
| 3 | **go down** | present |  |  |  | the pit |  | down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **not** **hope** | can | sins *= sin* |  |  |  |  | for Thy truth | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for truth=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
כִּ֣י לֹ֥א שְׁא֛וֹל תּוֹדֶ֖ךָּ מָ֣וֶת יְהַלְלֶ֑ךָּ לֹֽא־יְשַׂבְּר֥וּ יֽוֹרְדֵי־ב֖וֹר אֶל־אֲמִתֶּֽךָ׃

[Isaiah 38:18: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.38.18/)

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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:823` 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 38:17 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.822/)
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- ↑ back to [Isaiah 38:18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.38.18/)