---
title: Isaiah 38:21 (JPS 1917) — And Isaiah said: 'Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a pla… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Isaiah said: 'Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.' Who acts: Isaiah, songs. Isaiah 38:21 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Isaiah 38:21 · JPS 1917

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And Isaiah said: 'Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.'

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**Who acts:** Isaiah, songs · **What happens:** say, let, take, lay, recover · **To what, where:** songs, cake · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Isaiah 38:21 · 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 (Isaiah, songs), 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:826
# text = And Isaiah said: 'Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Isaiah	Isaiah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
5	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	_
6	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	cake	cake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	figs	fig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	plaster	plaster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
20	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	boil	boil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	recover	recover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
29	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: command
- act: request
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Isaiah |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **let** | infinitive |  | songs *= song* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **take** | infinitive | songs *= song* *not said here* | a cake of figs |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cake=Theme |
| 4 | **lay** | infinitive |  | cake |  |  |  | for a plaster; upon the boil | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent it=Result for plaster=Beneficiary |
| 5 | **recover** | shall | Isaiah |  |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

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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}

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וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יְשַׁעְיָ֔הוּ יִשְׂא֖וּ דְּבֶ֣לֶת תְּאֵנִ֑ים וְיִמְרְח֥וּ עַֽל־הַשְּׁחִ֖ין וְיֶֽחִי׃

[Isaiah 38:21: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.38.21/)

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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:826` 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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