---
title: Joel 2:3 (JPS 1917) — A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame blazeth; the l… · tree and pragmatics
description: A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame blazeth; the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing escapeth them. Who acts: fire, flame, land, nothing. Joel 2:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Joel 2:3 · JPS 1917

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A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame blazeth; the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing escapeth them.

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**Who acts:** fire, flame, land, nothing · **What happens:** devour, blaze, be, escape · **To what, where:** people

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This is Joel 2:3 · 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 (fire, flame, land, nothing), 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:JOL:23
# text = A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame blazeth; the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing escapeth them.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	devoureth	devour	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	before	before	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
8	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	flame	flame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	blazeth	blaze	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
17	as	as	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Eden	Eden	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
22	before	before	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
26	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obl	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	desolate	desolate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	wilderness	wilderness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
31	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	32	punct	_	_
32	yea	yea	INTJ	UH	_	36	discourse	_	_
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	36	nsubj	_	_
36	escapeth	escape	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
37	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	obj	_	_
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **devour** | present | a fire |  |  |  | before people |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **blaze** | present | a flame |  |  |  |  | behind people | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme behind they=Location |
| 3 | **is** | present | the land |  |  |  | before people | as the garden and a desolate wilderness; of Eden | tree rules |
| 4 | **escape** | present | nothing | people |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme they=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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לְפָנָיו֙ אָ֣כְלָה אֵ֔שׁ וְאַחֲרָ֖יו תְּלַהֵ֣ט לֶֽהָבָ֑ה כְּגַן־עֵ֨דֶן הָאָ֜רֶץ לְפָנָ֗יו וְאַֽחֲרָיו֙ מִדְבַּ֣ר שְׁמָמָ֔ה וְגַם־פְּלֵיטָ֖ה לֹא־הָ֥יְתָה לּֽוֹ׃

[Joel 2:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JOL.2.3/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JOL:23` 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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