---
title: Isaiah 41:12 (JPS 1917) — Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that conten… · tree and pragmatics
description: Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee; they that warred against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. Who acts: Thou, parts. Isaiah 41:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Isaiah 41:12 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee; they that warred against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Thou, parts · **What happens:** seek, not find, contend, war, be · **To what, where:** parts

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This is Isaiah 41:12 · 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 (Thou, parts), 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:887
# text = Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee; they that warred against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.
1	Thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	3	nsubj	_	_
2	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	even	even	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	appos	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
15	contended	contend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	15	obl	_	_
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
21	warred	war	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
22	against	against	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	21	obl	_	_
24	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	cop	_	_
26	as	as	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	parataxis	_	_
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	as	as	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	nought	nought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	_
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: promise
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=promise, voice=character

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seek** | shall | Thou | parts *= part* |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **find** | shall | Thou *not said here* | parts *= part* |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Topic |
| 3 | **contend** | past |  |  |  |  |  | with thee | vn battle-36.4 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with thou=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **war** | past |  |  |  |  |  | against thee | vn battle-36.4 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | shall | parts *= part* |  |  |  |  | as nothing | 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 -->
תְּבַקְשֵׁם֙ וְלֹ֣א תִמְצָאֵ֔ם אַנְשֵׁ֖י מַצֻּתֶ֑ךָ יִהְי֥וּ כְאַ֛יִן וּכְאֶ֖פֶס אַנְשֵׁ֥י מִלְחַמְתֶּֽךָ׃

[Isaiah 41:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.41.12/)

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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:887` 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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