---
title: 2 Samuel 4:12 (JPS 1917) — And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off t… · tree and pragmatics
description: And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron. Who acts: David, men. 2 Samuel 4:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 2 Samuel 4:12 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** David, men · **What happens:** command, slay, cut off, hang up · **To what, where:** young men, hands, men, pool · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is 2 Samuel 4:12 · 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, men), 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:125
# text = And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	David	David	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	commanded	command	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	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	slew	slay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
15	off	off	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	conj	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	hanged	hang	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	up	up	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
26	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	pool	pool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	Hebron	Hebron	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- 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 | **command** | past | David | David's young men |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent man=Theme |
| 2 | **slay** | past | men *= man* | hands *= hand* |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 3 | **cut off** | past | men *= man* *not said here* | men's hands and men's feet |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector hand=Eventuality |
| 4 | **hang up** | past | David *not said here* | men *= man* |  | the pool in Hebron |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme beside pool=Destination |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיְצַו֩ דָּוִ֨ד אֶת־הַנְּעָרִ֜ים וַיַּהַרְג֗וּם וַֽיְקַצְּצ֤וּ אֶת־יְדֵיהֶם֙ וְאֶת־רַגְלֵיהֶ֔ם וַיִּתְל֥וּ עַל־הַבְּרֵכָ֖ה בְּחֶבְר֑וֹן וְאֵ֨ת רֹ֤אשׁ אִֽישׁ־בֹּ֙שֶׁת֙אִֽישׁ־בֹּ֙שֶׁת֙ לָקָ֔חוּ וַיִּקְבְּר֥וּ בְקֶֽבֶר־אַבְנֵ֖ר בְּחֶבְרֽוֹן׃פ

[2 Samuel 4:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2SA.4.12/)

<!-- .note -->
This verse in JPS 1917:

<!-- .ens -->
1. **And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron.**
2. [But they took the head of Ish-bosheth, and buried it in the grave of Abner in Hebron.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/2SA.126/)

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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:125` 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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