---
title: Judges 18:5 (JPS 1917) — And they said unto him: 'Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we… · tree and pragmatics
description: And they said unto him: 'Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we are going shall be prosperous.' Who acts: children, we, way. Judges 18:5 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Judges 18:5 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And they said unto him: 'Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we are going shall be prosperous.'

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**Who acts:** children, we, way · **What happens:** say, ask, pray, know, go, be · **To what, where:** counsel, thee, way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Judges 18:5 · 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 (children, we, way), 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:521
# text = And they said unto him: 'Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we are going shall be prosperous.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|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	:	_	8	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	_
8	Ask	ask	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
9	counsel	counsel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	pray	pray	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
13	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	12	obj	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
22	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
23	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
25	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	obj	_	_
26	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	acl:relcl	_	_
29	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	cop	_	_
31	prosperous	prosperous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	ccomp	_	_
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
33	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: request
- 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 | children *= child* |  |  |  |  | unto Micah | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | infinitive |  | counsel |  |  |  | of God | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent counsel=Recipient |
| 3 | **pray** | present | we | thee |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **know** | may | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **go** | present · progressive | we | our way |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location which=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | shall | our way |  |  |  |  | prosperous *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֹּ֥אמְרוּ ל֖וֹ שְׁאַל־נָ֣א בֵאלֹהִ֑ים וְנֵ֣דְעָ֔ה הֲתַצְלִ֣יחַ דַּרְכֵּ֔נוּ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֲנַ֖חְנוּ הֹלְכִ֥ים עָלֶֽיהָ׃

[Judges 18:5: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG.18.5/)

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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:521` 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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