---
title: Esther 7:4 (JPS 1917) — for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and… · tree and pragmatics
description: for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. Esther 7:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/EST.115/)

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# Esther 7:4 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish.

<!-- .vintro -->
**What happens:** sell, destroy, slain, perish · **To what, where:** we

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This is Esther 7:4 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 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: 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:EST:115
# text = for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish.
1	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	sold	sell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	destroyed	destroy	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	slain	slain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	perish	perish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sell** | present · passive |  | we |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **destroy** | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP» |
| 3 | **slain** | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **perish** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn break\_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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 -->
כִּ֤י נִמְכַּ֙רְנוּ֙ אֲנִ֣י וְעַמִּ֔י לְהַשְׁמִ֖יד לַהֲר֣וֹג וּלְאַבֵּ֑ד וְ֠אִלּוּ לַעֲבָדִ֨ים וְלִשְׁפָח֤וֹת נִמְכַּ֙רְנוּ֙ הֶחֱרַ֔שְׁתִּי כִּ֣י אֵ֥ין הַצָּ֛ר שֹׁוֶ֖ה בְּנֵ֥זֶק הַמֶּֽלֶךְ׃ס

[Esther 7:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.7.4/)

<!-- .note -->
This verse in JPS 1917:

<!-- .ens -->
1. **for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish.**
2. [But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my peace, for the adversary is not worthy that the king be endamaged.'](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/EST.116/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:EST: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: [Esther 7:3 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/EST.114/)
- next →: [Esther 7:4 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/EST.116/)
- ↑ back to [Esther 7:4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.7.4/)