---
title: 1 Samuel 25:16 (JPS 1917) — they were a wall unto us both by night and by day, all the while we… · tree and pragmatics
description: they were a wall unto us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Who acts: bread, we. 1 Samuel 25:16 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 1 Samuel 25:16 · JPS 1917

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they were a wall unto us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.

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**Who acts:** bread, we · **What happens:** be, keep · **To what, where:** wall, sheep

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This is 1 Samuel 25:16 · 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 (bread, we), 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:737
# text = they were a wall unto us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
1	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	both	both	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc:preconj	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	16	det:predet	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl:unmarked	_	_
17	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	advcl	_	_
21	keeping	keep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | bread | a wall |  |  | night | unto us | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | we |  |  |  | while | with fields *= field* | tree rules |
| 3 | **keep** | gerund | we *not said here* | the sheep |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sheep=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}

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חוֹמָה֙ הָי֣וּ עָלֵ֔ינוּ גַּם־לַ֖יְלָה גַּם־יוֹמָ֑ם כָּל־יְמֵ֛י הֱיוֹתֵ֥נוּ עִמָּ֖ם רֹעִ֥ים הַצֹּֽאן׃

[1 Samuel 25:16: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.25.16/)

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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:737` 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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