---
title: Esther 4:3 (JPS 1917) — And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his… · tree and pragmatics
description: And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. Who acts: commandment, great mourning, many, king. Esther 4:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and
---

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# Esther 4:3 · JPS 1917

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And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

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**Who acts:** commandment, great mourning, many, king · **What happens:** come, be, lie, command, decree · **To what, where:** province, sackcloth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Esther 4:3 · 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 (commandment, great mourning, many, 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:65
# text = And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	4	det	_	_
4	province	province	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
6	whithersoever	whithersoever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	14	advmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	's	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	commandment	commandment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	decree	decree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
14	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	17	expl	_	_
17	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	mourning	mourning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
20	among	among	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	Jews	Jew	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	_
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	fasting	fasting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	weeping	weeping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	wailing	wailing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
32	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
34	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	nsubj	_	_
35	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	sackcloth	sackcloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	ashes	ash	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	conj	_	_
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the king's commandment and king's decree |  |  |  |  | whithersoever *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **be** | past | great mourning among the Jews and fasting and weeping and wailing |  |  | every province; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in province=Location |
| 3 | **lie** | past | many |  |  | sackcloth and ashes |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in sackcloth=Location |
| 4 | **command** |  | the king |  |  |  |  |  | nom commandment «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
| 5 | **decree** |  | king |  |  |  |  |  | nom decree «communication intransitive»: 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}

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וּבְכָל־מְדִינָ֣ה וּמְדִינָ֗ה מְקוֹם֙ אֲשֶׁ֨ר דְּבַר־הַמֶּ֤לֶךְ וְדָתוֹ֙ מַגִּ֔יעַ אֵ֤בֶל גָּדוֹל֙ לַיְּהוּדִ֔ים וְצ֥וֹם וּבְכִ֖י וּמִסְפֵּ֑ד שַׂ֣ק וָאֵ֔פֶר יֻצַּ֖ע לָֽרַבִּֽים׃

[Esther 4:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.4.3/)

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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:65` 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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