---
title: Esther 2:21 (JPS 1917) — in those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the kin… · tree and pragmatics
description: in those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those that kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus. Who acts: Mordecai, two. Esther 2:21 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/EST.44/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Ketuvim](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/) / [Esther](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST/) / [chapter 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST/2/) / [2:21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.2.21/) / JPS 1

# Esther 2:21 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
in those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those that kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Mordecai, two · **What happens:** sit, keep, be, seek, lay · **To what, where:** gate, door, hands

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Esther 2:21 · 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 (Mordecai, two), 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:44
# text = in those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those that kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus.
1	in	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	_
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
5	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	Mordecai	Mordecai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	advcl	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	's	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	nsubj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	's	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	chamberlains	chamberlain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	Bigthan	Bigthan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	appos	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	Teresh	Teresh	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	21	nmod	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
28	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
32	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	wroth	wroth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	sought	seek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	conj	_	_
37	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
38	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	xcomp	_	_
39	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obj	_	_
40	on	on	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
43	Ahasuerus	Ahasuerus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	42	appos	_	_
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	33	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | Mordecai |  |  | the king's gate |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in gate=Location |
| 2 | **keep** | past |  | the door |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent door=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | two of the king's chamberlains |  |  |  | day | wroth *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **seek** | past | two of the king's chamberlains *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **lay** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | two of the king's chamberlains *not said here* | hands |  |  |  | on the king | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent hand=Theme on king=Destination |

<!-- .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 -->
בַּיָּמִ֣ים הָהֵ֔ם וּמָרְדֳּכַ֖י יֹשֵׁ֣ב בְּשַֽׁעַר־הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ קָצַף֩ בִּגְתָ֨ן וָתֶ֜רֶשׁ שְׁנֵֽי־סָרִיסֵ֤י הַמֶּ֙לֶךְ֙ מִשֹּׁמְרֵ֣י הַסַּ֔ף וַיְבַקְשׁוּ֙ לִשְׁלֹ֣חַ יָ֔ד בַּמֶּ֖לֶךְ אֲחַשְׁוֵֽרֹשׁ׃

[Esther 2:21: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.2.21/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:EST:44` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Esther 2:20 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/EST.43/)
- next →: [Esther 2:22 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/EST.45/)
- ↑ back to [Esther 2:21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.2.21/)