---
title: Judges 20:39 (JPS 1917) — And the men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to sm… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; for they said: 'Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.' Who acts: men, Benjamin, persons. Judges 20:39 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Judges 20:39 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; for they said: 'Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.'

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**Who acts:** men, Benjamin, persons · **What happens:** turn, begin, smite, kill, say, smite down · **To what, where:** battle, thirty persons, persons, first battle · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Judges 20:39 · 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 (men, Benjamin, persons), 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:619
# text = And the men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; for they said: 'Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	Benjamin	Benjamin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	smite	smite	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
23	about	about	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	thirty	thirty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	persons	person	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
26	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
27	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
30	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	_
31	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	35	punct	_	_
32	Surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
33	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj:pass	_	_
34	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux:pass	_	_
35	smitten	smite	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	ccomp	_	_
36	down	down	ADP	RP	_	35	compound:prt	_	_
37	before	before	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	obl	_	_
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
40	as	as	ADP	IN	_	44	mark	_	_
41	in	in	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
43	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	44	amod	_	_
44	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	35	punct	_	_
46	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	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 | **turn** | past | the men of Israel |  |  | the battle |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme in battle=Trajectory |
| 2 | **begin** | past | Benjamin |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **smite** | to-infinitive | Benjamin *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **kill** | infinitive | Benjamin *not said here* | thirty persons |  |  |  | of the men of Israel | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent person=Theme of man=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | persons *= person* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **smite down** | present · passive |  | persons *= person* |  | the first battle | before us | surely *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיַּהֲפֹ֥ךְ אִֽישׁ־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בַּמִּלְחָמָ֑ה וּבִנְיָמִ֡ן הֵחֵל֩ לְהַכּ֨וֹת חֲלָלִ֤ים בְּאִֽישׁ־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ כִּשְׁלֹשִׁ֣ים אִ֔ישׁ כִּ֣י אָמְר֔וּ אַךְ֩ נִגּ֨וֹף נִגָּ֥ף הוּא֙ לְפָנֵ֔ינוּ כַּמִּלְחָמָ֖ה הָרִאשֹׁנָֽה׃

[Judges 20:39: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG.20.39/)

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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:619` 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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