---
title: 2 Kings 18:4 (JPS 1917) — He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the… · tree and pragmatics
description: He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah; and he broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did offer to it; and it was called Nehushtan. Who acts: Hezekiah, Moses, children. 2 Kings 18:4 in JPS 1917 with its 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/2KI.553/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Nevi'im](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/) / [2 Kings](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2KI/) / [chapter 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2KI/18/) / [18:4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2KI.18.4/) / JPS 1

# 2 Kings 18:4 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah; and he broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did offer to it; and it was called Nehushtan.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Hezekiah, Moses, children · **What happens:** remove, break, cut down, make, offer, call · **To what, where:** high places, pillars, Asherah, brazen serpent, pieces, serpent · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is 2 Kings 18:4 · 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 (Hezekiah, Moses, children), 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:2KI:553
# text = He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah; and he broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did offer to it; and it was called Nehushtan.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	removed	remove	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	places	place	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	pillars	pillar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	down	down	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Asherah	Asherah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	brazen	brazen	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
26	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	obj	_	_
27	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	acl:relcl	_	_
30	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	40	punct	_	_
31	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	40	mark	_	_
32	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	34	det	_	_
34	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	obl	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nsubj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	_
39	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
40	offer	offer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
41	to	to	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	obl	_	_
43	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	47	punct	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
45	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj:pass	_	_
46	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	aux:pass	_	_
47	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
48	Nehushtan	Nehushtan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	47	xcomp	_	_
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	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 | **remove** | past | Hezekiah | the high places |  |  |  |  | vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Theme |
| 2 | **break** | past | Hezekiah *not said here* | the pillars |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer pillar=Patient |
| 3 | **cut down** | past | Hezekiah *not said here* | the Asherah |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset asherah=Product |
| 4 | **break** | past | Hezekiah | the brazen serpent |  | pieces |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer serpent=Patient |
| 5 | **make** | past · perfect | Moses | the brazen serpent |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Product |
| 6 | **offer** | past · do-support | the children of Israel |  |  | serpent | day |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent to it=Goal |
| 7 | **call** | past · passive |  | serpent |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |

<!-- .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 -->
ה֣וּא ׀ הֵסִ֣יר אֶת־הַבָּמ֗וֹת וְשִׁבַּר֙ אֶת־הַמַּצֵּבֹ֔ת וְכָרַ֖ת אֶת־הָֽאֲשֵׁרָ֑ה וְכִתַּת֩ נְחַ֨שׁ הַנְּחֹ֜שֶׁת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂ֣ה מֹשֶׁ֗ה כִּ֣י עַד־הַיָּמִ֤ים הָהֵ֙מָּה֙ הָי֤וּ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ מְקַטְּרִ֣ים ל֔וֹ וַיִּקְרָא־ל֖וֹ נְחֻשְׁתָּֽן׃

[2 Kings 18:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2KI.18.4/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:2KI:553` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [2 Kings 18:3 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/2KI.552/)
- next →: [2 Kings 18:5 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/2KI.554/)
- ↑ back to [2 Kings 18:4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2KI.18.4/)