---
title: 1 Samuel 16:15 (JPS 1917) — And Saul's servants said unto him: 'Behold now, an evil spirit from… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Saul's servants said unto him: 'Behold now, an evil spirit from God terrifieth thee. Who acts: servants, evil spirit. 1 Samuel 16:15 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 1 Samuel 16:15 · JPS 1917

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And Saul's servants said unto him: 'Behold now, an evil spirit from God terrifieth thee.

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**Who acts:** servants, evil spirit · **What happens:** say, terrify · **To what, where:** Saul, thee · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is 1 Samuel 16:15 · 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 (servants, evil spirit), 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:443
# text = And Saul's servants said unto him: 'Behold now, an evil spirit from God terrifieth thee.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	Saul	Saul	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	iobj	_	_
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
9	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	_
10	Behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	18	discourse	_	_
11	now	now	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
13	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	terrifieth	terrify	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
19	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	18	obj	_	_
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: warn
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed act=warn, form=decl, polarity=neg

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Saul's servants |  | Saul |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **terrify** | present | a evil spirit from God | thee |  |  | now |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus thou=Experiencer |

<!-- .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}

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וַיֹּאמְר֥וּ עַבְדֵֽי־שָׁא֖וּל אֵלָ֑יו הִנֵּה־נָ֧א רֽוּחַ־אֱלֹהִ֛ים רָעָ֖ה מְבַעִתֶּֽךָ׃

[1 Samuel 16:15: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.16.15/)

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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:443` 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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