---
title: 2 Samuel 18:9 (JPS 1917) — And Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David. · tree and pragmatics
description: And Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David. Who acts: Absalom. 2 Samuel 18:9 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 2 Samuel 18:9 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

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And Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David.

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**Who acts:** Absalom · **What happens:** chance, meet · **To what, where:** servants

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This is 2 Samuel 18:9 · 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 (Absalom), 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:520
# text = And Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Absalom	Absalom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	chanced	chance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	meet	meet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	David	David	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	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 | **chance** | past | Absalom |  |  |  |  |  | vn risk-94-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **meet** | to-infinitive | Absalom *not said here* | the servants of David |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent servant=Co-Agent |

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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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וַיִּקָּרֵא֙ אַבְשָׁל֔וֹם לִפְנֵ֖י עַבְדֵ֣י דָוִ֑ד וְאַבְשָׁל֞וֹם רֹכֵ֣ב עַל־הַפֶּ֗רֶד וַיָּבֹ֣א הַפֶּ֡רֶד תַּ֣חַת שׂוֹבֶךְ֩ הָאֵלָ֨ה הַגְּדוֹלָ֜ה וַיֶּחֱזַ֧ק רֹאשׁ֣וֹ בָאֵלָ֗ה וַיֻּתַּן֙ בֵּ֤ין הַשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙ וּבֵ֣ין הָאָ֔רֶץ וְהַפֶּ֥רֶד אֲשֶׁר־תַּחְתָּ֖יו עָבָֽר׃

[2 Samuel 18:9: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2SA.18.9/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. **And Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David.**
2. [And Absalom was riding upon his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great terebinth, and his head caught hold of the terebinth, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went on.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/2SA.521/)

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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:520` 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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