---
title: Nehemiah 2:9 (JPS 1917) — Then I came to the governors beyond the River, and gave them the kin… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then I came to the governors beyond the River, and gave them the king's letters. Who acts: I, king. Nehemiah 2:9 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Nehemiah 2:9 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

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Then I came to the governors beyond the River, and gave them the king's letters.

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**Who acts:** I, king · **What happens:** come, give, letter · **To what, where:** governors, letters

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This is Nehemiah 2:9 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2 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, 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:NEH:21
# text = Then I came to the governors beyond the River, and gave them the king's letters.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	governors	governor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
7	beyond	beyond	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	River	River	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	's	's	PART	POS	_	15	case	_	_
17	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | I |  |  | the governors beyond the River | then |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to governor=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **give** | past | I *not said here* | the king's letters | governors *= governor* |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient letter=Theme |
| 3 | **letter** |  | the king |  |  |  |  |  | nom letter «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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וָֽאָב֗וֹא אֶֽל־פַּֽחֲווֹת֙עֵ֣בֶר הַנָּהָ֔ר וָאֶתְּנָ֣ה לָהֶ֔ם אֵ֖ת אִגְּר֣וֹת הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ וַיִּשְׁלַ֤ח עִמִּי֙ הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ שָׂ֥רֵי חַ֖יִל וּפָרָשִֽׁים׃פ

[Nehemiah 2:9: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/NEH.2.9/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. **Then I came to the governors beyond the River, and gave them the king's letters.**
2. [Now the king had sent with me captains of the army and horsemen.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/NEH.22/)

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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:21` 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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