---
title: Jonah 4:3 (JPS 1917) — Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it… · tree and pragmatics
description: Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.' Who acts: you, I, me. Jonah 4:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Jonah 4:3 · JPS 1917

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Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.'

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**Who acts:** you, I, me · **What happens:** take, beseech, be, die, live · **To what, where:** life, Thee

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This is Jonah 4:3 · 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 (you, I, me), 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:JON:43
# text = Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.'
1	Therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
2	now	now	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	_
5	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	vocative	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	take	take	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	beseech	beseech	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
11	Thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	10	obj	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
15	from	from	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	_
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
18	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	expl	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	advcl	_	_
22	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	csubj	_	_
26	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
30	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: command
- act: request
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=imp

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | imperative | you *not said here* | my life |  |  | now | from me; LORD *vocative*; therefore *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent life=Theme from i=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **beseech** | present | I | Thee |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **die** | to-infinitive | me |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 5 | **live** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
וְעַתָּ֣ה יְהוָ֔ה קַח־נָ֥א אֶת־נַפְשִׁ֖י מִמֶּ֑נִּי כִּ֛י ט֥וֹב מוֹתִ֖י מֵחַיָּֽי׃ס

[Jonah 4:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JON.4.3/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JON:43` 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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