---
title: Jeremiah 23:12 (JPS 1917) — Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery places in the dar… · tree and pragmatics
description: Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery places in the darkness, they shall be thrust, and fall therein; for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD. Who acts: way, I, LORD, prophets. Jeremiah 23:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Jeremiah 23:12 · JPS 1917

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Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery places in the darkness, they shall be thrust, and fall therein; for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.

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**Who acts:** way, I, LORD, prophets · **What happens:** be, thrust, fall, bring, say, visit · **To what, where:** prophets, evil · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Jeremiah 23:12 · 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 (way, I, LORD, prophets), 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:628
# text = Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery places in the darkness, they shall be thrust, and fall therein; for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.
1	Wherefore	wherefore	ADV	WRB	_	18	advmod	_	_
2	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
6	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	advcl	_	_
8	as	as	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	slippery	slippery	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	places	place	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	thrust	thrust	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
22	therein	therein	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
24	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
28	evil	evil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
29	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obl	_	_
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	even	even	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl:unmarked	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	visitation	visitation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	_
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
39	saith	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	parataxis	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	39	nsubj	_	_
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: promise
- voice: narrator
- polarity: neg
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | shall | prophets's way |  |  |  |  | unto prophets *= prophet*; as slippery places in the darkness | tree rules |
| 2 | **thrust** | shall · passive |  | prophets *= prophet* |  |  |  | wherefore *property* | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **fall** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | therein *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **bring** | future | I | evil |  |  | year | upon prophets *= prophet* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent evil=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | the LORD |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **visit** |  | prophets *= prophet* |  |  |  |  |  | nom visitation «event transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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}

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לָכֵן֩ יִֽהְיֶ֨ה דַרְכָּ֜ם לָהֶ֗ם כַּחֲלַקְלַקּוֹת֙ בָּֽאֲפֵלָ֔ה יִדַּ֖חוּ וְנָ֣פְלוּ בָ֑הּ כִּֽי־אָבִ֨יא עֲלֵיהֶ֥ם רָעָ֛ה שְׁנַ֥ת פְּקֻדָּתָ֖ם נְאֻם־יְהוָֽה׃

[Jeremiah 23:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JER.23.12/)

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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:628` 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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