---
title: 2 Samuel 9:8 (JPS 1917) — And he bowed down, and said: 'What is thy servant, that thou shoulde… · tree and pragmatics
description: And he bowed down, and said: 'What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?' Who acts: David, thou. 2 Samuel 9:8 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.237/)

<!-- 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/) / [9:8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2SA.9.8/) / JPS 1

# 2 Samuel 9:8 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And he bowed down, and said: 'What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** David, thou · **What happens:** bow down, say, be, look · **To what, where:** servant · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is 2 Samuel 9:8 · 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, thou), 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:237
# text = And he bowed down, and said: 'What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?'
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	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	down	down	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
9	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	_
10	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	nsubj	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	ccomp	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	18	nsubj	_	_
17	shouldest	should	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
19	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	23	det:predet	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
24	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl	_	_
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
28	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	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 | **bow down** | past | David |  |  |  |  |  | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | David *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | present |  | thy servant |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **look** | should | thou |  |  |  |  | upon such dead dog | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent upon dog=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיִּשְׁתַּ֕חוּ וַיֹּ֖אמֶר מֶ֣ה עַבְדֶּ֑ךָ כִּ֣י פָנִ֔יתָ אֶל־הַכֶּ֥לֶב הַמֵּ֖ת אֲשֶׁ֥ר כָּמֽוֹנִי׃

[2 Samuel 9:8: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2SA.9.8/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:2SA:237` 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 9:7 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/2SA.236/)
- next →: [2 Samuel 9:9 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/2SA.238/)
- ↑ back to [2 Samuel 9:8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2SA.9.8/)