---
title: Judges 9:4 (JPS 1917) — And they gave him threescore and ten pieces of silver out of the hou… · tree and pragmatics
description: And they gave him threescore and ten pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith, wherewith Abimelech hired vain and light fellows, who followed him. Who acts: hearts, Abimelech, vain fellows. Judges 9:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Judges 9:4 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And they gave him threescore and ten pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith, wherewith Abimelech hired vain and light fellows, who followed him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** hearts, Abimelech, vain fellows · **What happens:** give, hire, follow · **To what, where:** threescore pieces, son, house, vain fellows

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Judges 9:4 · 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 (hearts, Abimelech, vain fellows), 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:264
# text = And they gave him threescore and ten pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith, wherewith Abimelech hired vain and light fellows, who followed him.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	threescore	threescore	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	conj	_	_
8	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	out	out	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	Baal	Baal	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	_
18	berith	berith	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	wherewith	wherewith	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	obl	_	_
21	Abimelech	Abimelech	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	hired	hire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
23	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	light	light	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	conj	_	_
26	fellows	fellow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
29	followed	follow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	.	.	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 | **give** | past | hearts *= heart* | threescore pieces of silver | son | the house of Baal berith |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient piece=Theme |
| 2 | **hire** | past | Abimelech | vain fellows |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fellow=Theme |
| 3 | **follow** | past | vain fellows | son |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «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 -->
וַיִּתְּנוּ־לוֹ֙ שִׁבְעִ֣ים כֶּ֔סֶף מִבֵּ֖יתּבַ֣עַל בְּרִ֑יתבַ֣עַל בְּרִ֑ית וַיִּשְׂכֹּ֨ר בָּהֶ֜ם אֲבִימֶ֗לֶךְ אֲנָשִׁ֤ים רֵיקִים֙ וּפֹ֣חֲזִ֔ים וַיֵּלְכ֖וּ אַחֲרָֽיו׃

[Judges 9:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG.9.4/)

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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:264` 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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- ← previous: [Judges 9:3 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JDG.263/)
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