---
title: 1 Samuel 16:4 (JPS 1917) — And the elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said: 'Co… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said: 'Comest thou peaceably?' Who acts: elders, thou. 1 Samuel 16:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 1 Samuel 16:4 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2

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And the elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said: 'Comest thou peaceably?'

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**Who acts:** elders, thou · **What happens:** come, meet, tremble, say · **To what, where:** LORD · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is 1 Samuel 16:4 · 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 (elders, 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:1SA:426
# text = And the elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said: 'Comest thou peaceably?'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	elders	elder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	meet	meet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	trembling	tremble	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
15	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
16	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	_
17	Comest	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	_
18	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	17	nsubj	_	_
19	peaceably	peaceably	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
21	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the elders of the city |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **meet** | to-infinitive | the elders of the city *not said here* | LORD |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **tremble** | gerund | the elders of the city *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the elders of the city *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **come** | present | thou |  |  |  |  | peaceably *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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 -->
וַיַּ֣עַשׂ שְׁמוּאֵ֗ל אֵ֚ת אֲשֶׁ֣ר דִּבֶּ֣ר יְהוָ֔ה וַיָּבֹ֖א בֵּ֣ית לָ֑חֶם בֵּ֣ית לָ֑חֶם וַיֶּחֶרְד֞וּ זִקְנֵ֤י הָעִיר֙ לִקְרָאת֔וֹ וַיֹּ֖אמֶר שָׁלֹ֥ם בּוֹאֶֽךָ׃

[1 Samuel 16:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.16.4/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. [And Samuel did that which the LORD spoke, and came to Beth-lehem.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/1SA.425/)
2. **And the elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said: 'Comest thou peaceably?'**

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:1SA:426` 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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