---
title: Isaiah 44:18 (JPS 1917) — They know not, neither do they understand; for their eyes are bedaub… · tree and pragmatics
description: They know not, neither do they understand; for their eyes are bedaubed, that they cannot see, and their hearts, that they cannot understand. Who acts: men, eyes. Isaiah 44:18 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Isaiah 44:18 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They know not, neither do they understand; for their eyes are bedaubed, that they cannot see, and their hearts, that they cannot understand.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** men, eyes · **What happens:** not know, understand, bedaub, not see, not understand · **To what, where:** eyes, hearts

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Isaiah 44:18 · 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 (men, eyes), 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:990
# text = They know not, neither do they understand; for their eyes are bedaubed, that they cannot see, and their hearts, that they cannot understand.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	8	cc	_	_
6	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
10	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
13	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	bedaubed	bedaub	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	hearts	heart	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	_
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl:relcl	_	_
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | present | men *= man* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **understand** | present · do-support | men *= man* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **bedaub** | present · passive |  | men's eyes |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **see** | can | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **not** **understand** | can | eyes *= eye* | men's hearts *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer heart=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 -->
לֹ֥א יָדְע֖וּ וְלֹ֣א יָבִ֑ינוּ כִּ֣י טַ֤ח מֵֽרְאוֹת֙ עֵֽינֵיהֶ֔ם מֵהַשְׂכִּ֖יל לִבֹּתָֽם׃

[Isaiah 44:18: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.44.18/)

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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:990` 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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