---
title: 2 Samuel 21:1 (JPS 1917) — And there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after… · tree and pragmatics
description: And there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD. Who acts: famine, David. 2 Samuel 21:1 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 2 Samuel 21:1 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** famine, David · **What happens:** be, seek · **To what, where:** face

<!-- .vabout -->
This is 2 Samuel 21:1 · 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 (famine, David), 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:634
# text = And there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	famine	famine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	David	David	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
15	after	after	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	David	David	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	sought	seek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	.	.	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 | **be** | past | a famine |  |  | there | day; year |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **seek** | past | David | the face of the LORD |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent face=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 -->
וַיְהִ֣י רָעָב֩ בִּימֵ֨י דָוִ֜ד שָׁלֹ֣שׁ שָׁנִ֗ים שָׁנָה֙ אַחֲרֵ֣י שָׁנָ֔ה וַיְבַקֵּ֥שׁ דָּוִ֖ד אֶת־פְּנֵ֣י יְהוָ֑הס וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יְהוָ֗ה אֶל־שָׁאוּל֙ וְאֶל־בֵּ֣ית הַדָּמִ֔ים עַל־אֲשֶׁר־הֵמִ֖ית אֶת־הַגִּבְעֹנִֽים׃

[2 Samuel 21:1: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2SA.21.1/)

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

<!-- .ens -->
1. **And there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD.**
2. [And the LORD said: 'It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites.'](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/2SA.635/)

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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:634` 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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