---
title: Esther 3:15 (JPS 1917) — The posts went forth in haste by the king's commandment, and the dec… · tree and pragmatics
description: The posts went forth in haste by the king's commandment, and the decree was given out in Shushan the castle; and the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was perplexed. Who acts: posts, king. Esther 3:15 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.62/)

<!-- 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/) / [3:15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.3.15/) / JPS 1

# Esther 3:15 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The posts went forth in haste by the king's commandment, and the decree was given out in Shushan the castle; and the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was perplexed.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** posts, king · **What happens:** go, give out, sit down, drink, perplex, command · **To what, where:** haste, decree, Shushan, city · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Esther 3:15 · 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 (posts, 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:62
# text = The posts went forth in haste by the king's commandment, and the decree was given out in Shushan the castle; and the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was perplexed.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	posts	post	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	haste	haste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	's	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	commandment	commandment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	decree	decree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
18	out	out	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	Shushan	Shushan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	appos	_	_
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	Haman	Haman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	_
29	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
30	down	down	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	_
33	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	40	punct	_	_
34	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nsubj:pass	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	Shushan	Shushan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	_
39	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	aux:pass	_	_
40	perplexed	perplex	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	conj	_	_
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=narrate

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | the posts |  |  | haste |  | by the king's commandment; forth *property* | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in haste=Location |
| 2 | **give out** | past · passive |  | the decree |  | Shushan |  |  | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **sit down** | past | the king and Haman |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **drink** | to-infinitive | the king and Haman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **perplex** | past · passive |  | the city of Shushan |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 6 | **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 -->
הָֽרָצִ֞ים יָצְא֤וּ דְחוּפִים֙ בִּדְבַ֣ר הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ וְהַדָּ֥ת נִתְּנָ֖ה בְּשׁוּשַׁ֣ן הַבִּירָ֑ה וְהַמֶּ֤לֶךְ וְהָמָן֙ יָשְׁב֣וּ לִשְׁתּ֔וֹת וְהָעִ֥יר שׁוּשָׁ֖ן נָבֽוֹכָה׃פ

[Esther 3:15: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.3.15/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:EST:62` 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 3:14 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/EST.61/)
- next →: [Esther 4:1 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/EST.63/)
- ↑ back to [Esther 3:15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.3.15/)