---
title: Jeremiah 4:23 (JPS 1917) — I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens,… · tree and pragmatics
description: I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. Who acts: I, earth, heavens. Jeremiah 4:23 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Jeremiah 4:23 · JPS 1917

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I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

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**Who acts:** I, earth, heavens · **What happens:** behold, be, have · **To what, where:** earth, light

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This is Jeremiah 4:23 · 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 (I, earth, heavens), 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:JER:125
# text = I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	beheld	behold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	lo	lo	INTJ	UH	_	12	discourse	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	waste	waste	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	void	void	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	_
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	heavens	heaven	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
23	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	24	det	_	_
24	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **behold** | past | I | the earth |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer earth=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | past | earth |  |  |  |  | waste *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | earth *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **have** | past | heavens *= heaven* | no light |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent light=Patient |

<!-- .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 -->
רָאִ֙יתִי֙ אֶת־הָאָ֔רֶץ וְהִנֵּה־תֹ֖הוּ וָבֹ֑הוּ וְאֶל־הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ין אוֹרָֽם׃

[Jeremiah 4:23: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JER.4.23/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JER:125` 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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