---
title: Judges 9:38 (JPS 1917) — Then said Zebul unto him: 'Where is now thy mouth, that thou saidst:… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then said Zebul unto him: 'Where is now thy mouth, that thou saidst: Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that thou hast despised? go out now, I pray, and fight with them.' Who acts: Zebul, thou, we, this. Judges 9:38 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Judges 9:38 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then said Zebul unto him: 'Where is now thy mouth, that thou saidst: Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that thou hast despised? go out now, I pray, and fight with them.'

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**Who acts:** Zebul, thou, we, this, I · **What happens:** say, be, serve, not be, despise, go out · **To what, where:** mouth, Abimelech, Gaal, people · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Judges 9:38 · 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 (Zebul, thou, we, this), 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:298
# text = Then said Zebul unto him: 'Where is now thy mouth, that thou saidst: Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that thou hast despised? go out now, I pray, and fight with them.'
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	Zebul	Zebul	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	_
8	Where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	12	advmod	_	_
11	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	16	nsubj	_	_
16	saidst	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	20	nsubj	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	Abimelech	Abimelech	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	ccomp	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	serve	serve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	32	punct	_	_
28	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	32	advmod	_	_
30	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	32	nsubj	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	ccomp	_	_
33	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	36	obj	_	_
34	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	36	nsubj	_	_
35	hast	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
36	despised	despise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	32	acl:relcl	_	_
37	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	32	punct	_	_
38	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
39	out	out	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
40	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	38	advmod	_	_
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
42	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
43	pray	pray	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	38	parataxis	_	_
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
46	fight	fight	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	conj	_	_
47	with	with	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
48	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	obl	_	_
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
50	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: wh-question
- act: evaluate
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Zebul |  |  |  | then | unto Gaal | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | present |  | thy mouth |  |  | now |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | thou | thy mouth *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent mouth=Topic |
| 4 | **is a** | present |  | Abimelech |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **serve** | should | we | Gaal |  |  |  |  | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Attribute |
| 6 | **not** **is a** | present | this | the people |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **despise** | present · perfect | thou | the people |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus |
| 8 | **go out** | infinitive |  |  |  |  | now | out *property* | vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **pray** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 10 | **fight** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | with people | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with they=Co-Agent |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֹּ֨אמֶר אֵלָ֜יו זְבֻ֗ל אַיֵּ֨ה אֵפ֥וֹא פִ֙יךָ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר תֹּאמַ֔ר מִ֥י אֲבִימֶ֖לֶךְ כִּ֣י נַעַבְדֶ֑נּוּ הֲלֹ֨א זֶ֤ה הָעָם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר מָאַ֣סְתָּה בּ֔וֹ צֵא־נָ֥א עַתָּ֖ה וְהִלָּ֥חֶם בּֽוֹ׃ס

[Judges 9:38: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG.9.38/)

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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:298` 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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