---
title: 1 Samuel 17:12 (JPS 1917) — Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Beth-lehem in Judah, who… · tree and pragmatics
description: Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Beth-lehem in Judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons; and the man was an old man in the days of Saul, stricken in years among men. Who acts: David, name, man, Jesse. 1 Samuel 17:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# 1 Samuel 17:12 · JPS 1917

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Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Beth-lehem in Judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons; and the man was an old man in the days of Saul, stricken in years among men.

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**Who acts:** David, name, man, Jesse · **What happens:** be, have, stricken, name · **To what, where:** son, Jesse, eight sons, old man

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This is 1 Samuel 17:12 · 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 (David, name, man, Jesse), 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:463
# text = Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Beth-lehem in Judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons; and the man was an old man in the days of Saul, stricken in years among men.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	David	David	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	Ephrathite	Ephrathite	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	Beth	Beth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	_
12	lehem	lehem	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	Judah	Judah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	Jesse	Jesse	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	acl:relcl	_	_
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
24	eight	eight	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
26	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	33	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
31	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	Saul	Saul	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	_
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
40	stricken	stricken	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	acl	_	_
41	in	in	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	obl	_	_
43	among	among	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	obl	_	_
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | David | the son and a old man |  |  | now | of that Ephrathite of Beth lehem in Judah | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | past | Jesse's name | Jesse |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past | David | eight sons |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 4 | **is a** | past | the man | a old man |  |  | day |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **stricken** | participle |  | a old man *not said here* |  |  | year | among men | tree rules |
| 6 | **name** |  | Jesse |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
וְדָוִד֩ בֶּן־אִ֨ישׁ אֶפְרָתִ֜י הַזֶּ֗ה מִבֵּ֥ית לֶ֙חֶם֙ בֵּ֥ית לֶ֙חֶם֙ יְהוּדָ֔ה וּשְׁמ֣וֹ יִשַׁ֔י וְל֖וֹ שְׁמֹנָ֣ה בָנִ֑ים וְהָאִישׁ֙ בִּימֵ֣י שָׁא֔וּל זָקֵ֖ן בָּ֥א בַאֲנָשִֽׁים׃

[1 Samuel 17:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.17.12/)

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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:463` 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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