---
title: Judges 16:9 (JPS 1917) — And she said unto him: 'The Philistines are upon thee, Samson.' And… · tree and pragmatics
description: And she said unto him: 'The Philistines are upon thee, Samson.' And he broke the bowstrings as a string of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire. Who acts: strength, Philistines, man, string. Judges 16:9 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Judges 16:9 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And she said unto him: 'The Philistines are upon thee, Samson.' And he broke the bowstrings as a string of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire.

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**Who acts:** strength, Philistines, man, string · **What happens:** say, be, break, touch · **To what, where:** bowstrings, string, fire · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Judges 16:9 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 3 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 (strength, Philistines, man, string), 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:477
# text = And she said unto him: 'The Philistines are upon thee, Samson.' And he broke the bowstrings as a string of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	_
8	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Philistines	philistine	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
10	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	3	ccomp	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	Samson	Samson	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	vocative	_	_
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
16	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
17	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	bowstrings	bowstring	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	string	string	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	tow	tow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
27	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	advcl	_	_
29	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	31	mark	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	toucheth	touch	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- 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 | strength |  |  |  |  | unto man | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | the Philistines |  |  |  |  | upon thee; Samson *vocative* | tree rules |
| 3 | **break** | past | man | the bowstrings |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bowstring=Patient |
| 4 | **break** | present · passive |  | a string of tow |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 5 | **touch** | present | string | the fire |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme fire=Co-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 -->
וְהָאֹרֵ֗ב יֹשֵׁ֥ב לָהּ֙ בַּחֶ֔דֶר וַתֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלָ֔יו פְּלִשְׁתִּ֥ים עָלֶ֖יךָ שִׁמְשׁ֑וֹן וַיְנַתֵּק֙ אֶת־הַיְתָרִ֔ים כַּאֲשֶׁ֨ר יִנָּתֵ֤ק פְּתִֽיל־הַנְּעֹ֙רֶת֙ בַּהֲרִיח֣וֹ אֵ֔שׁ וְלֹ֥א נוֹדַ֖ע כֹּחֽוֹ׃

[Judges 16:9: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG.16.9/)

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

<!-- .ens -->
1. [Now she had liers-in-wait abiding in the inner chamber.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JDG.476/)
2. **And she said unto him: 'The Philistines are upon thee, Samson.' And he broke the bowstrings as a string of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire.**
3. [So his strength was not known.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JDG.478/)

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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:477` 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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