---
title: Judges 9:23 (JPS 1917) — And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem… · tree and pragmatics
description: And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech; Who acts: God, men. Judges 9:23 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Judges 9:23 · JPS 1917

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And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech;

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**Who acts:** God, men · **What happens:** send, deal · **To what, where:** evil spirit

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This is Judges 9:23 · 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 (God, men), 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:283
# text = And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech;
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	between	between	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Abimelech	Abimelech	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	Shechem	Shechem	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	Shechem	Shechem	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
20	dealt	deal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
21	treacherously	treacherously	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	Abimelech	Abimelech	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: pos
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past | God | a evil spirit |  |  |  | between Abimelech and the men of Shechem | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spirit=Theme |
| 2 | **deal** | past | the men of Shechem |  |  |  |  | with Abimelech; treacherously *property* | vn cope-83 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with abimelech=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}

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וַיִּשְׁלַ֤ח אֱלֹהִים֙ ר֣וּחַ רָעָ֔ה בֵּ֣ין אֲבִימֶ֔לֶךְ וּבֵ֖ין בַּעֲלֵ֣י שְׁכֶ֑ם וַיִּבְגְּד֥וּ בַעֲלֵי־שְׁכֶ֖ם בַּאֲבִימֶֽלֶךְ׃

[Judges 9:23: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG.9.23/)

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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:283` 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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