---
title: 1 Samuel 17:39 (JPS 1917) — And David girded his sword upon his apparel, and he essayed to go, b… · tree and pragmatics
description: And David girded his sword upon his apparel, and he essayed to go, but could not; for he had not tried it. Who acts: David. 1 Samuel 17:39 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 1 Samuel 17:39 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

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And David girded his sword upon his apparel, and he essayed to go, but could not; for he had not tried it.

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**Who acts:** David · **What happens:** gird, essay, go, not try · **To what, where:** sword

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This is 1 Samuel 17:39 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 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 (David), 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:492
# text = And David girded his sword upon his apparel, and he essayed to go, but could not; for he had not tried it.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	David	David	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	girded	gird	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	apparel	apparel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	essayed	essay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
20	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **gird** | past | David | David's sword |  |  |  | upon David's apparel | tree rules |
| 2 | **essay** | past | David |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **go** | to-infinitive | David *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **try** | past · perfect | David | sword |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיַּחְגֹּ֣ר דָּוִ֣ד אֶת־חַ֠רְבּוֹ מֵעַ֨ל לְמַדָּ֜יו וַיֹּ֣אֶל לָלֶכֶת֮ כִּ֣י לֹֽא־נִסָּה֒ וַיֹּ֨אמֶר דָּוִ֜ד אֶל־שָׁא֗וּל לֹ֥א אוּכַ֛ל לָלֶ֥כֶת בָּאֵ֖לֶּה כִּ֣י לֹ֣א נִסִּ֑יתִי וַיְסִרֵ֥ם דָּוִ֖ד מֵעָלָֽיו׃

[1 Samuel 17:39: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.17.39/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. **And David girded his sword upon his apparel, and he essayed to go, but could not; for he had not tried it.**
2. [And David said unto Saul: 'I cannot go with these; for I have not tried them.' And David put them off him.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/1SA.493/)

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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:492` 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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