---
title: Micah 7:17 (JPS 1917) — They shall lick the dust like a serpent; like crawling things of the… · tree and pragmatics
description: They shall lick the dust like a serpent; like crawling things of the earth they shall come trembling out of their close places; they shall come with fear unto the LORD our God, and shall be afraid because of Thee. Who acts: ears. Micah 7:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# Micah 7:17 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They shall lick the dust like a serpent; like crawling things of the earth they shall come trembling out of their close places; they shall come with fear unto the LORD our God, and shall be afraid because of Thee.

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**Who acts:** ears · **What happens:** lick, crawl, come, tremble, be · **To what, where:** dust, close places

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Micah 7:17 · 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 (ears), 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:MIC:115
# text = They shall lick the dust like a serpent; like crawling things of the earth they shall come trembling out of their close places; they shall come with fear unto the LORD our God, and shall be afraid because of Thee.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	lick	lick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	like	like	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
10	like	like	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	crawling	crawl	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	amod	_	_
12	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
19	trembling	tremble	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	advcl	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	places	place	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
31	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
34	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	appos	_	_
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
38	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
39	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	cop	_	_
40	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	conj	_	_
41	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	43	case	_	_
42	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	fixed	_	_
43	Thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	40	obl	_	_
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed act=assert, voice=character

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lick** | shall | ears *= ear* | the dust |  |  |  | like a serpent | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent dust=Source |
| 2 | **crawl** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **come** | shall | ears *= ear* |  |  |  |  | like crawling things of the earth | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **tremble** | gerund | ears *= ear* *not said here* |  |  | ears's close places |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme out place=Location |
| 5 | **come** | shall | ears *= ear* |  |  |  |  | with fear; unto the LORD | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | shall | ears *= ear* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | because Thee; afraid *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
יְלַחֲכ֤וּ עָפָר֙ כַּנָּחָ֔שׁ כְּזֹחֲלֵ֣י אֶ֔רֶץ יִרְגְּז֖וּ מִמִּסְגְּרֹֽתֵיהֶ֑ם אֶל־יְהוָ֤ה אֱלֹהֵ֙ינוּ֙ יִפְחָ֔דוּ וְיִֽרְא֖וּ מִמֶּֽךָּ׃

[Micah 7:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/MIC.7.17/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:MIC:115` 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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- ← previous: [Micah 7:16 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/MIC.114/)
- next →: [Micah 7:18 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/MIC.116/)
- ↑ back to [Micah 7:17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/MIC.7.17/)