---
title: Jeremiah 51:12 (JPS 1917) — Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch stron… · tree and pragmatics
description: Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for the LORD hath both devised and done that which He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon. Who acts: you, LORD. Jeremiah 51:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# Jeremiah 51:12 · JPS 1917

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Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for the LORD hath both devised and done that which He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, LORD · **What happens:** set up, make, set, prepare, devise, do · **To what, where:** standard, walls, watch, watchmen, ambushes, that · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Jeremiah 51:12 · 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 (you, LORD), 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:1389
# text = Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for the LORD hath both devised and done that which He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
1	Set	set	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	up	up	ADP	RP	_	1	compound:prt	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	standard	standard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
5	against	against	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	Babylon	Babylon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	make	make	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	watch	watch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	xcomp	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	set	set	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	watchmen	watchman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	prepare	prepare	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	ambushes	ambush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
24	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
27	hath	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	both	both	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	devised	devise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	1	advcl	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	29	conj	_	_
32	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	31	obj	_	_
33	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	35	obj	_	_
34	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	acl:relcl	_	_
36	concerning	concerning	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	inhabitants	inhabitant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obl	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	Babylon	Babylon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	_
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: request
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=request

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set up** | imperative | you *not said here* | a standard |  | the walls of Babylon |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent standard=Theme against wall=Destination |
| 2 | **make** | infinitive | you *not said here* | the watch |  |  |  | strong *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset watch=Product |
| 3 | **set** | infinitive | you *not said here* | the watchmen |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient watchman=Result |
| 4 | **prepare** | infinitive | you *not said here* | the ambushes |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ambush=Patient |
| 5 | **devise** | present · perfect | the LORD |  |  |  |  | both *property* | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **do** | participle | the LORD *not said here* | that |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |
| 7 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | LORD |  |  |  |  | concerning the inhabitants of Babylon | 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 -->
אֶל־חוֹמֹ֨ת בָּבֶ֜ל שְׂאוּ־נֵ֗ס הַחֲזִ֙יקוּ֙ הַמִּשְׁמָ֔ר הָקִ֙ימוּ֙ שֹֽׁמְרִ֔ים הָכִ֖ינוּ הָאֹֽרְבִ֑ים כִּ֚י גַּם־זָמַ֣ם יְהוָ֔ה גַּם־עָשָׂ֕ה אֵ֥ת אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֖ר אֶל־יֹשְׁבֵ֥י בָבֶֽל׃

[Jeremiah 51:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JER.51.12/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JER:1389` 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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