---
title: Esther 4:2 (JPS 1917) — and he came even before the king's gate; for none might enter within… · tree and pragmatics
description: and he came even before the king's gate; for none might enter within the king's gate clothed with sackcloth. Who acts: Mordecai, none. Esther 4:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Esther 4:2 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
and he came even before the king's gate; for none might enter within the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.

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**Who acts:** Mordecai, none · **What happens:** come, enter, clothe · **To what, where:** gate

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This is Esther 4:2 · 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, none), 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:64
# text = and he came even before the king's gate; for none might enter within the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.
1	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	even	even	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
5	before	before	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
11	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	14	nsubj	_	_
13	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	enter	enter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
15	within	within	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	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
20	clothed	clothe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	advcl	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	sackcloth	sackcloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	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 | **come** | past | Mordecai |  |  | the king's gate |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before gate=Location |
| 2 | **enter** | might | none |  |  |  |  | within the king's gate | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **clothe** | participle | none *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with sackcloth | vn dress-41.1.1-1-2 «NP V»: agent=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 -->
וַיָּב֕וֹא עַ֖ד לִפְנֵ֣י שַֽׁעַר־הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ כִּ֣י אֵ֥ין לָב֛וֹא אֶל־שַׁ֥עַר הַמֶּ֖לֶךְ בִּלְב֥וּשׁ שָֽׂק׃

[Esther 4:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.4.2/)

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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:64` 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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