---
title: Judges 14:4 (JPS 1917) — But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD; for… · tree and pragmatics
description: But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Who acts: father, it, Samson. Judges 14:4 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.427/)

<!-- 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 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG/14/) / [14:4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG.14.4/) / JPS 1

# Judges 14:4 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** father, it, Samson · **What happens:** not know, be, seek · **To what, where:** occasion, Philistines · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Judges 14:4 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2 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 (father, it, Samson), 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:427
# text = But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
7	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	ccomp	_	_
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
16	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	sought	seek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
19	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	occasion	occasion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	against	against	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	Philistines	philistine	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	_
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	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 | **not** **know** | past | Samson's father and Samson's mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | past | it |  |  |  |  | of the LORD | tree rules |
| 3 | **seek** | past | Samson | a occasion |  | the Philistines |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent occasion=Theme against philistine=Location |

<!-- .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 -->
וְאָבִ֨יו וְאִמּ֜וֹ לֹ֣א יָדְע֗וּ כִּ֤י מֵיְהוָה֙ הִ֔יא כִּי־תֹאֲנָ֥ה הֽוּא־מְבַקֵּ֖שׁ מִפְּלִשְׁתִּ֑ים וּבָעֵ֣ת הַהִ֔יא פְּלִשְׁתִּ֖ים מֹשְׁלִ֥ים בְּיִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃פ

[Judges 14:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG.14.4/)

<!-- .note -->
This verse in JPS 1917:

<!-- .ens -->
1. **But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines.**
2. [Now at that time the Philistines had rule over Israel.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JDG.428/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JDG:427` 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 14:3 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JDG.426/)
- next →: [Judges 14:4 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JDG.428/)
- ↑ back to [Judges 14:4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG.14.4/)