---
title: Isaiah 40:13 (JPS 1917) — Or who was His counsellor that he might instruct Him? · tree and pragmatics
description: Or who was His counsellor that he might instruct Him? Who acts: counsellor. Isaiah 40:13 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Isaiah 40:13 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2

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Or who was His counsellor that he might instruct Him?

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**Who acts:** counsellor · **What happens:** be, instruct · **To what, where:** counsellor, God

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This is Isaiah 40:13 · 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 (counsellor), 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:849
# text = Or who was His counsellor that he might instruct Him?
1	Or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	2	cc	_	_
2	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	counsellor	counsellor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	might	might	AUX	MD	_	9	aux	_	_
9	instruct	instruct	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
10	Him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=q, act=ask, indirect=0

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | God's counsellor |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **instruct** *speech: other* | might | counsellor |  | God |  |  |  | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |

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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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מִֽי־תִכֵּ֥ן אֶת־ר֖וּחַ יְהוָ֑ה וְאִ֥ישׁ עֲצָת֖וֹ יוֹדִיעֶֽנּוּ׃

[Isaiah 40:13: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.40.13/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. [Who hath meted out the spirit of the LORD?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.848/)
2. **Or who was His counsellor that he might instruct Him?**

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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:849` 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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