---
title: 2 Samuel 21:17 (JPS 1917) — But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philisti… · tree and pragmatics
description: But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Who acts: Abishai. 2 Samuel 21:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 2 Samuel 21:17 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him.

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**Who acts:** Abishai · **What happens:** succour, smote, kill · **To what, where:** David, Philistine

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This is 2 Samuel 21:17 · 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 (Abishai), 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:652
# text = But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	Abishai	Abishai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Zeruiah	Zeruiah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	succoured	succour	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	smote	smote	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Philistine	philistine	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	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 | **succour** | past | Abishai | David |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **smote** | past | Abishai *not said here* | the Philistine |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **kill** | past | Abishai *not said here* | David |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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 -->
וַיַּֽעֲזָר־לוֹ֙ אֲבִישַׁ֣י בֶּן־צְרוּיָ֔ה וַיַּ֥ךְ אֶת־הַפְּלִשְׁתִּ֖י וַיְמִיתֵ֑הוּ אָ֣ז נִשְׁבְּעוּ֩ אַנְשֵׁי־דָוִ֨ד ל֜וֹ לֵאמֹ֗ר לֹא־תֵצֵ֨א ע֤וֹד אִתָּ֙נוּ֙ לַמִּלְחָמָ֔ה וְלֹ֥א תְכַבֶּ֖ה אֶת־נֵ֥ר יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃פ

[2 Samuel 21:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2SA.21.17/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

<!-- .ens -->
1. **But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him.**
2. [Then the men of David swore unto him, saying: 'Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the lamp of Israel.'](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/2SA.653/)

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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:652` 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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