---
title: Jeremiah 10:5 (JPS 1917) — Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in the… · tree and pragmatics
description: Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good. Who acts: you, customs, evil. Jeremiah 10:5 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Jeremiah 10:5 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2

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Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.

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**Who acts:** you, customs, evil · **What happens:** not be, not do, be, do · **To what, where:** evil, good

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This is Jeremiah 10:5 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2 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, customs, evil), 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:302
# text = Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.
1	Be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	cop	_	_
2	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
12	evil	evil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	18	cc	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	acl	_	_
21	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	obj	_	_
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: evaluate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of customs *= custom*; afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **do** | can | customs *= custom* | evil |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent evil=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is** | present | evil |  |  |  |  | in cucumbers *= cucumber* | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** | to-infinitive | customs *= custom* *not said here* | good |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent good=Eventuality |

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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}

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כְּתֹ֨מֶר מִקְשָׁ֥ה הֵ֙מָּה֙ וְלֹ֣א יְדַבֵּ֔רוּ נָשׂ֥וֹא יִנָּשׂ֖וּא כִּ֣י לֹ֣א יִצְעָ֑דוּ אַל־תִּֽירְא֤וּ מֵהֶם֙ כִּי־לֹ֣א יָרֵ֔עוּ וְגַם־הֵיטֵ֖יב אֵ֥ין אוֹתָֽם׃ס

[Jeremiah 10:5: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JER.10.5/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. [They are like a pillar in a garden of cucumbers, and speak not; they must needs be borne, because they cannot go.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JER.301/)
2. **Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.**

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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:302` 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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