---
title: Esther 3:3 (JPS 1917) — Then the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, said unto Mo… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai: 'Why transgressest thou the king's commandment?' Who acts: servants, thou, king. Esther 3:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/EST.50/)

<!-- 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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST/3/) / [3:3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.3.3/) / JPS 1

# Esther 3:3 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai: 'Why transgressest thou the king's commandment?'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** servants, thou, king · **What happens:** be, say, transgress, command · **To what, where:** gate, commandment · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Esther 3:3 · 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 (servants, thou, king), 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:50
# text = Then the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai: 'Why transgressest thou the king's commandment?'
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	_
4	's	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
7	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	's	's	PART	POS	_	11	case	_	_
13	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	acl:relcl	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	Mordecai	Mordecai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
18	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
19	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	_
20	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
21	transgressest	transgress	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	_
22	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	21	nsubj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	's	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	commandment	commandment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
28	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed indirect=0

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the king's servants |  |  | the king's gate |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the king's servants |  |  |  | then | unto Mordecai | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **transgress** | present | thou | the king's commandment |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **command** |  | the king |  |  |  |  |  | nom commandment «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֹּ֨אמְר֜וּ עַבְדֵ֥י הַמֶּ֛לֶךְ אֲשֶׁר־בְּשַׁ֥עַר הַמֶּ֖לֶךְ לְמָרְדֳּכָ֑י מַדּ֙וּעַ֙ אַתָּ֣ה עוֹבֵ֔ר אֵ֖ת מִצְוַ֥ת הַמֶּֽלֶךְ׃

[Esther 3:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.3.3/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:EST:50` 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 3:2 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/EST.49/)
- next →: [Esther 3:4 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/EST.51/)
- ↑ back to [Esther 3:3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.3.3/)