---
title: Isaiah 40:15 (JPS 1917) — Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as th… · tree and pragmatics
description: Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance; behold the isles are as a mote in weight. Who acts: nations, isles. Isaiah 40:15 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Isaiah 40:15 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance; behold the isles are as a mote in weight.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** nations, isles · **What happens:** be, count · **To what, where:** weight

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Isaiah 40:15 · 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 (nations, isles), 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:851
# text = Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance; behold the isles are as a mote in weight.
1	Behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	8	discourse	_	_
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	nations	nation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
5	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	as	as	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	drop	drop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	bucket	bucket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	counted	count	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	balance	balance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
24	behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	30	discourse	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	isles	isle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	_
27	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
28	as	as	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	mote	mote	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	parataxis	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	weight	weight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- 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 | **is** | present | the nations |  |  |  |  | as a drop; of a bucket | tree rules |
| 2 | **count** | present · passive | the nations *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as the small dust of the balance | vn masquerade-29.6 «NP V PP.attribute»: as dust=Attribute |
| 3 | **is** | present | the isles |  |  | weight |  | as a mote | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
הֵ֤ן גּוֹיִם֙ כְּמַ֣ר מִדְּלִ֔י וּכְשַׁ֥חַק מֹאזְנַ֖יִם נֶחְשָׁ֑בוּ הֵ֥ן אִיִּ֖ים כַּדַּ֥ק יִטּֽוֹל׃

[Isaiah 40:15: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.40.15/)

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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:851` 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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