---
title: 2 Samuel 4:1 (JPS 1917) — And when Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands b… · tree and pragmatics
description: And when Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands became feeble, and all the Israelites were affrighted. Who acts: son, Abner, hands. 2 Samuel 4:1 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 2 Samuel 4:1 · JPS 1917

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And when Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands became feeble, and all the Israelites were affrighted.

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**Who acts:** son, Abner, hands · **What happens:** hear, be, become, affright · **To what, where:** Hebron, Israelites · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is 2 Samuel 4:1 · 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 (son, Abner, hands), 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:2SA:112
# text = And when Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands became feeble, and all the Israelites were affrighted.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	6	mark	_	_
3	Saul	Saul	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	_
4	's	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	Abner	Abner	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	ccomp	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Hebron	Hebron	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	feeble	feeble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	22	det:predet	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	Israelites	israelite	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	affrighted	affright	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed polarity=none

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | Saul's son |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | past | Abner |  |  | Hebron |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **become** | past | Abner's hands |  |  |  |  | feeble *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **affright** | past · passive |  | all Israelites |  |  |  |  | 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}

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וַיִּשְׁמַ֣ע בֶּן־שָׁא֗וּל כִּ֣י מֵ֤ת אַבְנֵר֙ בְּחֶבְר֔וֹן וַיִּרְפּ֖וּ יָדָ֑יו וְכָל־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל נִבְהָֽלוּ׃

[2 Samuel 4:1: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2SA.4.1/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:2SA:112` 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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