---
title: 2 Samuel 9:2 (JPS 1917) — Now there was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba, an… · tree and pragmatics
description: Now there was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba, and they called him unto David; and the king said unto him: 'Art thou Ziba?' And he said: 'Thy servant is he.' Who acts: servant, name, they, king. 2 Samuel 9:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/2SA.230/)

<!-- 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 Samuel](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2SA/) / [chapter 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2SA/9/) / [9:2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2SA.9.2/) / JPS 1

# 2 Samuel 9:2 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now there was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba, and they called him unto David; and the king said unto him: 'Art thou Ziba?' And he said: 'Thy servant is he.'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** servant, name, they, king, Ziba · **What happens:** be, call, say, name · **To what, where:** Ziba, servant, David · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is 2 Samuel 9:2 · 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 (servant, name, they, king), 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:230
# text = Now there was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba, and they called him unto David; and the king said unto him: 'Art thou Ziba?' And he said: 'Thy servant is he.'
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	_	3	expl	_	_
3	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Saul	Saul	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
11	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	Ziba	Ziba	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	acl:relcl	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	David	David	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
27	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	_
29	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
30	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	31	punct	_	_
31	Art	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	ccomp	_	_
32	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	31	nsubj	_	_
33	Ziba	Ziba	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	xcomp	_	_
34	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	31	punct	_	_
35	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	31	punct	_	_
36	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
37	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
39	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	44	punct	_	_
40	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	44	punct	_	_
41	Thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nsubj	_	_
43	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	44	cop	_	_
44	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	ccomp	_	_
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	44	punct	_	_
46	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	44	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed form=q, act=ask

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a servant |  |  | there | now | of the house of Saul | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past | Ziba's name | Ziba |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **call** | past | they |  | servant |  |  | unto David | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the king |  |  |  |  | unto David | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is a** | present | Thy servant | David |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **name** |  | Ziba |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
וּלְבֵ֨ית שָׁא֥וּל עֶ֙בֶד֙ וּשְׁמ֣וֹ צִיבָ֔א וַיִּקְרְאוּ־ל֖וֹ אֶל־דָּוִ֑ד וַיֹּ֨אמֶר הַמֶּ֧לֶךְ אֵלָ֛יו הַאַתָּ֥ה צִיבָ֖א וַיֹּ֥אמֶר עַבְדֶּֽךָ׃

[2 Samuel 9:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2SA.9.2/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:2SA:230` 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 Samuel 9:1 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/2SA.229/)
- next →: [2 Samuel 9:3 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/2SA.231/)
- ↑ back to [2 Samuel 9:2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2SA.9.2/)