---
title: Esther 4:4 (JPS 1917) — And Esther's maidens and her chamberlains came and told it her; and… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Esther's maidens and her chamberlains came and told it her; and the queen was exceedingly pained; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai; and to take his sackcloth from off him; but he accepted it not. Who acts: maidens, Esther, Mordecai. Esther 4:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Esther 4:4 · JPS 1917

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And Esther's maidens and her chamberlains came and told it her; and the queen was exceedingly pained; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai; and to take his sackcloth from off him; but he accepted it not.

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**Who acts:** maidens, Esther, Mordecai · **What happens:** come, tell, pain, send, clothe, take · **To what, where:** sackcloth, Esther, queen, raiment, Mordecai · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Esther 4:4 · 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 (maidens, Esther, Mordecai), 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:66
# text = And Esther's maidens and her chamberlains came and told it her; and the queen was exceedingly pained; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai; and to take his sackcloth from off him; but he accepted it not.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	Esther	Esther	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	maidens	maiden	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	chamberlains	chamberlain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
8	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	iobj	_	_
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux:pass	_	_
18	exceedingly	exceedingly	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	pained	pain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
24	raiment	raiment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	clothe	clothe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
27	Mordecai	Mordecai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
28	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	sackcloth	sackcloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
34	from	from	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	off	off	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	_
37	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	40	punct	_	_
38	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
39	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
40	accepted	accept	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
41	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	obj	_	_
42	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	40	advmod	_	_
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	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 | **come** | past | Esther's maidens and Esther's chamberlains |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Esther's maidens and Esther's chamberlains *not said here* | sackcloth | Esther |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient it=Topic |
| 3 | **pain** | past · passive |  | the queen |  |  |  | exceedingly *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 4 | **send** | past | Esther | raiment |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent raiment=Theme |
| 5 | **clothe** | to-infinitive | Esther *not said here* | Mordecai |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mordecai=Patient |
| 6 | **take** | to-infinitive | Esther *not said here* | Mordecai's sackcloth |  |  |  | from Mordecai | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent sackcloth=Theme from he=Initial\_Location |
| 7 | **not** **accept** | past | Mordecai | sackcloth |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
וַ֠תָּבוֹאינָהנַעֲר֨וֹת אֶסְתֵּ֤ר וְסָרִיסֶ֙יהָ֙ וַיַּגִּ֣ידוּ לָ֔הּ וַתִּתְחַלְחַ֥ל הַמַּלְכָּ֖ה מְאֹ֑ד וַתִּשְׁלַ֨ח בְּגָדִ֜ים לְהַלְבִּ֣ישׁ אֶֽת־מָרְדֳּכַ֗י וּלְהָסִ֥יר שַׂקּ֛וֹ מֵעָלָ֖יו וְלֹ֥א קִבֵּֽל׃

[Esther 4:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.4.4/)

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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:66` 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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