---
title: 1 Samuel 26:18 (JPS 1917) — And he said: 'Wherefore doth my lord pursue after his servant? for w… · tree and pragmatics
description: And he said: 'Wherefore doth my lord pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in my hand? Who acts: David, lord, I, evil. 1 Samuel 26:18 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 1 Samuel 26:18 · JPS 1917

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And he said: 'Wherefore doth my lord pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in my hand?

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**Who acts:** David, lord, I, evil · **What happens:** say, pursue, do, be · **To what, where:** hand · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is 1 Samuel 26:18 · 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, lord, I, evil), 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:787
# text = And he said: 'Wherefore doth my lord pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in my hand?
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
5	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	_
6	Wherefore	wherefore	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
7	doth	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
8	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	lord	lord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	pursue	pursue	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
11	after	after	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	obj	_	_
17	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
21	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
22	what	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	23	det	_	_
23	evil	evil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
24	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | David |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **pursue** | present · do-support | my lord |  |  |  | after David's servant | wherefore *property* | vn chase-51.6 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent after servant=Theme |
| 3 | **do** | present · perfect | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 4 | **is** | present | what evil |  |  | my hand |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֹּ֕אמֶר לָ֥מָּה זֶּ֛ה אֲדֹנִ֥י רֹדֵ֖ף אַחֲרֵ֣י עַבְדּ֑וֹ כִּ֚י מֶ֣ה עָשִׂ֔יתִי וּמַה־בְּיָדִ֖י רָעָֽה׃

[1 Samuel 26:18: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.26.18/)

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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:787` 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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