---
title: Judges 9:31 (JPS 1917) — And he sent messengers unto Abimelech in Tormah, saying: 'Behold, Ga… · tree and pragmatics
description: And he sent messengers unto Abimelech in Tormah, saying: 'Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brethren are come to Shechem; and, behold, they will incite the city against thee. Who acts: anger, Gaal, messengers. Judges 9:31 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JDG.291/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Nevi'im](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/) / [Judges](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG/) / [chapter 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG/9/) / [9:31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG.9.31/) / JPS 1

# Judges 9:31 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And he sent messengers unto Abimelech in Tormah, saying: 'Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brethren are come to Shechem; and, behold, they will incite the city against thee.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** anger, Gaal, messengers · **What happens:** send, say, come, incite · **To what, where:** messengers, Tormah, Shechem, city · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Judges 9:31 · 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 (anger, Gaal, messengers), 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:291
# text = And he sent messengers unto Abimelech in Tormah, saying: 'Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brethren are come to Shechem; and, behold, they will incite the city against thee.
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	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	messengers	messenger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
5	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Abimelech	Abimelech	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Tormah	Tormah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
12	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	_
13	Behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	24	discourse	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	Gaal	Gaal	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	appos	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	Ebed	Ebed	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	brethren	brethren	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	conj	_	_
23	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	ccomp	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	Shechem	Shechem	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	34	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	34	discourse	_	_
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
32	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	incite	incite	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
37	against	against	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	34	obl	_	_
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past | anger | messengers |  | Tormah |  | unto Abimelech | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent messenger=Theme in tormah=Destination |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | anger *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **come** | present · passive | Gaal |  |  | Shechem |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to shechem=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **incite** | future | messengers *= messenger* | the city |  |  |  | against thee | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition city=Patient |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיִּשְׁלַ֧ח מַלְאָכִ֛ים אֶל־אֲבִימֶ֖לֶךְ בְּתָרְמָ֣ה לֵאמֹ֑ר הִנֵּה֩ גַ֨עַל בֶּן־עֶ֤בֶד וְאֶחָיו֙ בָּאִ֣ים שְׁכֶ֔מָה וְהִנָּ֛ם צָרִ֥ים אֶת־הָעִ֖יר עָלֶֽיךָ׃

[Judges 9:31: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG.9.31/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JDG:291` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Judges 9:30 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JDG.290/)
- next →: [Judges 9:32 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JDG.292/)
- ↑ back to [Judges 9:31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG.9.31/)