--- title: Nehemiah 13:2 (JPS 1917) — because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with wate… · tree and pragmatics description: because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, to curse them; howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing. Who acts: Ammonite, God. Nehemiah 13:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/NEH.408/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Ketuvim](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/) / [Nehemiah](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/NEH/) / [chapter 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/NEH/13/) / [13:2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/NEH.13.2/) / JPS 1 # Nehemiah 13:2 · JPS 1917 because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, to curse them; howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing. **Who acts:** Ammonite, God · **What happens:** not meet, hire, curse, turn · **To what, where:** children, Balaam, Ammonite, curse, blessing This is Nehemiah 13:2 · 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 (Ammonite, God), 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:408 # text = because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, to curse them; howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing. 1 because because SCONJ IN _ 3 mark _ _ 2 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 met meet VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 3 advmod _ _ 5 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 6 det _ _ 6 children child NOUN NNS Number=Plur 3 obj _ _ 7 of of ADP IN _ 8 case _ _ 8 Israel Israel PROPN NNP Number=Sing 6 nmod _ _ 9 with with ADP IN _ 10 case _ _ 10 bread bread NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 nmod _ _ 11 and and CCONJ CC _ 13 cc _ _ 12 with with ADP IN _ 13 case _ _ 13 water water NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 conj _ _ 14 , , PUNCT , _ 16 punct _ _ 15 but but CCONJ CC _ 16 cc _ _ 16 hired hire VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 17 Balaam Balaam PROPN NNP Number=Sing 16 obj _ _ 18 against against ADP IN _ 19 case _ _ 19 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 16 obl _ _ 20 , , PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ _ 21 to to PART TO _ 22 mark _ _ 22 curse curse VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 16 advcl _ _ 23 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 22 obj _ _ 24 ; ; PUNCT : _ 28 punct _ _ 25 howbeit howbeit ADV RB _ 28 advmod _ _ 26 our our PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 27 nmod:poss _ _ 27 God God PROPN NNP Number=Sing 28 nsubj _ _ 28 turned turn VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 parataxis _ _ 29 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 30 curse curse NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 obj _ _ 31 into into ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 32 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 33 blessing blessing NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 obl _ _ 34 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} - form: statement - act: assert - voice: narrator - polarity: none - teacher: kept the draft | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **not** **meet** | past | Ammonite | the children of Israel | | | | with bread and water | vn satisfy-55.7 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent child=Theme with bread=Instrument | | 2 | **hire** | past | Ammonite *not said here* | Balaam | | | | against Ammonite | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent balaam=Theme | | 3 | **curse** | to-infinitive | Ammonite *not said here* | Ammonite | | | | | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme | | 4 | **turn** | past | our God | the curse | | a blessing | | howbeit *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent curse=Theme into blessing=Trajectory | 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} כִּ֣י לֹ֧א קִדְּמ֛וּ אֶת־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בַּלֶּ֣חֶם וּבַמָּ֑יִם וַיִּשְׂכֹּ֨ר עָלָ֤יו אֶת־בִּלְעָם֙ לְקַֽלְל֔וֹ וַיַּהֲפֹ֧ךְ אֱלֹהֵ֛ינוּ הַקְּלָלָ֖ה לִבְרָכָֽה׃ [Nehemiah 13:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/NEH.13.2/) **Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:NEH:408` 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. - ← previous: [Nehemiah 13:1 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/NEH.407/) - next →: [Nehemiah 13:3 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/NEH.409/) - ↑ back to [Nehemiah 13:2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/NEH.13.2/)