---
title: Jeremiah 5:31 (JPS 1917) — The prophets prophesy in the service of falsehood, and the priests b… · tree and pragmatics
description: The prophets prophesy in the service of falsehood, and the priests bear rule at their beck; and My people love to have it so; What then will ye do in the end thereof? Who acts: prophets, priests, people, ye. Jeremiah 5:31 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Jeremiah 5:31 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The prophets prophesy in the service of falsehood, and the priests bear rule at their beck; and My people love to have it so; What then will ye do in the end thereof?

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**Who acts:** prophets, priests, people, ye · **What happens:** prophesy, bear, love, have, do, service · **To what, where:** service, rule, beck, end, falsehood

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This is Jeremiah 5:31 · 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 (prophets, priests, people, ye), 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:168
# text = The prophets prophesy in the service of falsehood, and the priests bear rule at their beck; and My people love to have it so; What then will ye do in the end thereof?
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	prophets	prophet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	prophesy	prophesy	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	falsehood	falsehood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	priests	priest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
13	bear	bear	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
14	rule	rule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	beck	beck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
22	love	love	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	32	punct	_	_
28	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	32	obj	_	_
29	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	32	advmod	_	_
30	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	32	nsubj	_	_
32	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	parataxis	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
36	thereof	thereof	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
37	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	32	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: other
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=other

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prophesy** | present | the prophets |  |  | the service of falsehood |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **bear** | present | the priests | rule |  | priests's beck |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rule=Patient |
| 3 | **love** | present | My people |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **have** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | My people *not said here* | rule |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 5 | **do** | future | ye |  |  |  | in the end; then |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 6 | **service** |  |  | falsehood |  |  |  |  | nom service «act transitive»: of=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 -->
הַנְּבִיאִ֞ים נִבְּא֣וּ־בַשֶּׁ֗קֶר וְהַכֹּהֲנִים֙ יִרְדּ֣וּ עַל־יְדֵיהֶ֔ם וְעַמִּ֖י אָ֣הֲבוּ כֵ֑ן וּמַֽה־תַּעֲשׂ֖וּ לְאַחֲרִיתָֽהּ׃

[Jeremiah 5:31: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JER.5.31/)

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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:168` 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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