---
title: Psalms 59:1 (JPS 1917) — A Psalm of David; Michtam; when Saul sent, and they watched the hous… · tree and pragmatics
description: A Psalm of David; Michtam; when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him. Who acts: Saul, they. Psalms 59:1 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 59:1 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2

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A Psalm of David; Michtam; when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him.

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**Who acts:** Saul, they · **What happens:** send, watch, kill · **To what, where:** house, Saul

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This is Psalms 59:1 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 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 (Saul, they), 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:PSA:959
# text = A Psalm of David; Michtam; when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Psalm	Psalm	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	David	David	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
5	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
6	Michtam	Michtam	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	_
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
8	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	10	mark	_	_
9	Saul	Saul	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: fragment
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=frag

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past | Saul |  |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **watch** | past | they | the house |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent house=Theme |
| 3 | **kill** | to-infinitive | they *not said here* | Saul |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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 -->
לַמְנַצֵּ֣חַ אַל־תַּשְׁחֵת֮ לְדָוִ֪ד מִ֫כְתָּ֥ם בִּשְׁלֹ֥חַ שָׁא֑וּל וַֽיִּשְׁמְר֥וּ אֶת־הַ֝בַּ֗יִת לַהֲמִיתֽוֹ׃

[Psalms 59:1: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.59.1/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

<!-- .ens -->
1. [For the Leader; Al-tashheth.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PSA.958/)
2. **A Psalm of David; Michtam; when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him.**

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:PSA:959` 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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