---
title: Judges 9:3 (JPS 1917) — And his mother's brethren spoke of him in the ears of all the men of… · tree and pragmatics
description: And his mother's brethren spoke of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words; and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said: 'He is our brother.' Who acts: brethren, hearts, son. Judges 9:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Judges 9:3 · JPS 1917

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And his mother's brethren spoke of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words; and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said: 'He is our brother.'

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**Who acts:** brethren, hearts, son · **What happens:** speak, incline, follow, say, be · **To what, where:** words, ears, Abimelech, brother · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Judges 9:3 · 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 (brethren, hearts, son), 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:263
# text = And his mother's brethren spoke of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words; and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said: 'He is our brother.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	_
4	's	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	brethren	brethren	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	15	det:predet	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	Shechem	Shechem	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	20	det:predet	_	_
19	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	hearts	heart	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
25	inclined	incline	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	Abimelech	Abimelech	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
29	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	32	punct	_	_
30	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
33	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	_
34	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	38	punct	_	_
35	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
36	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	38	cop	_	_
37	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	ccomp	_	_
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	38	punct	_	_
40	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	38	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | son's mother's brethren | all words |  | the ears of all men of Shechem |  | of son | tree rules |
| 2 | **incline** | past | men's hearts |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **follow** | to-infinitive | men's hearts *not said here* | Abimelech |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent abimelech=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | brethren |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | present | son | our brother |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיְדַבְּר֨וּ אֲחֵֽי־אִמּ֜וֹ עָלָ֗יו בְּאָזְנֵי֙ כָּל־בַּעֲלֵ֣י שְׁכֶ֔ם אֵ֥ת כָּל־הַדְּבָרִ֖ים הָאֵ֑לֶּה וַיֵּ֤ט לִבָּם֙ אַחֲרֵ֣י אֲבִימֶ֔לֶךְ כִּ֥י אָמְר֖וּ אָחִ֥ינוּ הֽוּא׃

[Judges 9:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG.9.3/)

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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:263` 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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