---
title: Judges 21:3 (JPS 1917) — And they said: 'O LORD, the God of Israel, why is this come to pass… · tree and pragmatics
description: And they said: 'O LORD, the God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to-day one tribe lacking in Israel?' Who acts: people, one tribe. Judges 21:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Judges 21:3 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And they said: 'O LORD, the God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to-day one tribe lacking in Israel?'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, one tribe · **What happens:** say, come, pass, be, lack · **To what, where:** this, Israel · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Judges 21:3 · 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 (people, one tribe), 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:631
# text = And they said: 'O LORD, the God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to-day one tribe lacking in Israel?'
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	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
5	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	_
6	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	_
7	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	vocative	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	appos	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
16	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj	_	_
17	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	ccomp	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	26	expl	_	_
25	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	29	punct	_	_
29	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl:unmarked	_	_
30	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
31	tribe	tribe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
32	lacking	lack	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	31	acl	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
35	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
36	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- indirect: yes
- teacher: changed indirect=1

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **come** | present · passive |  | this |  |  |  | LORD *vocative* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **pass** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | Israel |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in israel=Location |
| 4 | **be** | should | one tribe |  |  | there | day |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **lack** | gerund | one tribe *not said here* |  |  | Israel |  |  | 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 -->
וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ לָמָ֗ה יְהוָה֙ אֱלֹהֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל הָ֥יְתָה זֹּ֖את בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל לְהִפָּקֵ֥ד הַיּ֛וֹם מִיִּשְׂרָאֵ֖ל שֵׁ֥בֶט אֶחָֽד׃

[Judges 21:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG.21.3/)

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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:631` 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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