---
title: Nehemiah 2:5 (JPS 1917) — And I said unto the king: 'If it please the king, and if thy servant… · tree and pragmatics
description: And I said unto the king: 'If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it.' Who acts: I, countenance, servant, thou. Nehemiah 2:5 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and th
---

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# Nehemiah 2:5 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And I said unto the king: 'If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it.'

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**Who acts:** I, countenance, servant, thou, thy · **What happens:** say, please, find, send, build, sight · **To what, where:** king, favour, sight, me, countenance · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Nehemiah 2:5 · 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 (I, countenance, servant, thou), 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:NEH:17
# text = And I said unto the king: 'If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
8	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	_
9	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	please	please	VERB	VB	Mood=Sub|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
19	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Sub|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	29	advcl	_	_
21	favour	favour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	29	nsubj	_	_
28	wouldest	would	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
30	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	Judah	Judah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
38	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	fathers	father	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	nmod:poss	_	_
40	'	's	PART	POS	_	39	case	_	_
41	sepulchres	sepulchre	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nmod	_	_
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
43	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
44	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
45	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
46	build	build	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	_
47	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	obj	_	_
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
49	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: request
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=request, polarity=none

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | I |  |  |  |  | unto the king | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **please** *a condition, not said to happen* | infinitive | countenance | the king |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus king=Experiencer |
| 3 | **find** *a condition, not said to happen* | present · perfect | thy servant | favour |  | thy sight |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent favour=Topic |
| 4 | **send** | would | thou | me |  |  |  | unto Judah; unto the city of my fathers's sepulchres | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 5 | **build** | may | I | countenance |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Product |
| 6 | **sight** |  | thy |  |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition 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 -->
וָאֹמַ֣ר לַמֶּ֔לֶךְ אִם־עַל־הַמֶּ֣לֶךְ ט֔וֹב וְאִם־יִיטַ֥ב עַבְדְּךָ֖ לְפָנֶ֑יךָ אֲשֶׁ֧ר תִּשְׁלָחֵ֣נִי אֶל־יְהוּדָ֗ה אֶל־עִ֛יר קִבְר֥וֹת אֲבֹתַ֖י וְאֶבְנֶֽנָּה׃

[Nehemiah 2:5: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/NEH.2.5/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:NEH:17` 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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