---
title: Judges 8:9 (JPS 1917) — And he spoke also unto the men of Penuel, saying: 'When I come back… · tree and pragmatics
description: And he spoke also unto the men of Penuel, saying: 'When I come back in peace, I will break down this tower.' Who acts: LORD, I. Judges 8:9 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Judges 8:9 · JPS 1917

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And he spoke also unto the men of Penuel, saying: 'When I come back in peace, I will break down this tower.'

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**Who acts:** LORD, I · **What happens:** speak, say, come back, break down · **To what, where:** peace, tower · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Judges 8:9 · 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 (LORD, I), 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:JDG:233
# text = And he spoke also unto the men of Penuel, saying: 'When I come back in peace, I will break down this tower.'
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	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	also	also	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	Penuel	Penuel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
13	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	_
14	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	16	mark	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	come	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
17	back	back	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	peace	peace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
24	down	down	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	det	_	_
26	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	_
28	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: promise
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | LORD |  |  |  |  | unto the men of Penuel | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | LORD *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **come back** | present | I |  |  | peace |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in peace=Location |
| 4 | **break down** | future | I | this tower |  |  |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tower=Patient |

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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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וַיֹּ֛אמֶר גַּם־לְאַנְשֵׁ֥י פְנוּאֵ֖ל לֵאמֹ֑ר בְּשׁוּבִ֣י בְשָׁל֔וֹם אֶתֹּ֖ץ אֶת־הַמִּגְדָּ֥ל הַזֶּֽה׃פ

[Judges 8:9: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG.8.9/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JDG:233` 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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