---
title: Jeremiah 6:23 (JPS 1917) — They lay hold on bow and spear, they are cruel, and have no compassi… · tree and pragmatics
description: They lay hold on bow and spear, they are cruel, and have no compassion; their voice is like the roaring sea, and they ride upon horses; set in array, as a man for war, against thee, O daughter of Zion. Who acts: people, voice. Jeremiah 6:23 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JER.194/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Nevi'im](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/) / [Jeremiah](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JER/) / [chapter 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JER/6/) / [6:23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JER.6.23/) / JPS 1

# Jeremiah 6:23 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They lay hold on bow and spear, they are cruel, and have no compassion; their voice is like the roaring sea, and they ride upon horses; set in array, as a man for war, against thee, O daughter of Zion.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, voice · **What happens:** lay hold, be, have, roar, ride, set · **To what, where:** bow, compassion, array

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Jeremiah 6:23 · 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 (people, voice), 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:194
# text = They lay hold on bow and spear, they are cruel, and have no compassion; their voice is like the roaring sea, and they ride upon horses; set in array, as a man for war, against thee, O daughter of Zion.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	hold	hold	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	bow	bow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	spear	spear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	cruel	cruel	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
15	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	16	det	_	_
16	compassion	compassion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
21	like	like	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	roaring	roar	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	amod	_	_
24	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	ride	ride	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
29	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
31	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	32	punct	_	_
32	set	set	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	array	array	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
36	as	as	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
39	for	for	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	_
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
42	against	against	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	32	obl	_	_
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
45	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	46	discourse	_	_
46	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	appos	_	_
47	of	of	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
48	Zion	Zion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	46	nmod	_	_
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lay hold** | present | people |  |  | bow and spear |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on bow=Destination |
| 2 | **is** | present | people |  |  |  |  | cruel *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | present | people *not said here* | no compassion |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent compassion=Patient |
| 4 | **roar** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | present | people's voice |  |  |  |  | like the roaring sea | tree rules |
| 6 | **ride** | present | people |  |  |  |  | upon horses | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **set** | participle |  |  |  | array |  | as a man for war; against thee | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in array=Destination |

<!-- .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 -->
קֶ֣שֶׁת וְכִיד֞וֹן יַחֲזִ֗יקוּ אַכְזָרִ֥י הוּא֙ וְלֹ֣א יְרַחֵ֔מוּ קוֹלָם֙ כַּיָּ֣ם יֶהֱמֶ֔ה וְעַל־סוּסִ֖ים יִרְכָּ֑בוּ עָר֗וּךְ כְּאִישׁ֙ לַמִּלְחָמָ֔ה עָלַ֖יִךְ בַּת־צִיּֽוֹן׃

[Jeremiah 6:23: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JER.6.23/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JER:194` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Jeremiah 6:22 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JER.193/)
- next →: [Jeremiah 6:24 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JER.195/)
- ↑ back to [Jeremiah 6:23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JER.6.23/)