---
title: Joshua 8:20 (JPS 1917) — And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, th… · tree and pragmatics
description: And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way; and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers. Who acts: men, smoke, people, city. Joshua 8:20 in JPS 1917 wit
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JOS.175/)

<!-- 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/) / [Joshua](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JOS/) / [chapter 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JOS/8/) / [8:20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JOS.8.20/) / JPS 1

# Joshua 8:20 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way; and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** men, smoke, people, city · **What happens:** look, see, ascend up, have, flee, turn back · **To what, where:** heaven, power, way, wilderness

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Joshua 8:20 · 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, smoke, people, city), 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:JOS:175
# text = And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way; and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	7	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Ai	Ai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
8	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	23	discourse	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	smoke	smoke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
23	ascended	ascend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
24	up	up	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	heaven	heaven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
31	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	32	det	_	_
32	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	flee	flee	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	acl	_	_
35	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	36	det	_	_
36	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl:unmarked	_	_
37	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
38	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	39	det	_	_
39	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	conj	_	_
40	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	49	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	nsubj	_	_
44	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	45	nsubj	_	_
45	fled	flee	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	acl:relcl	_	_
46	to	to	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	wilderness	wilderness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	_
49	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
50	back	back	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	_
51	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
52	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	pursuers	pursuer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	obl	_	_
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past | the men of Ai |  |  |  |  | behind el | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent behind they=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | past | men *= man* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **ascend up** | past | the smoke of the city |  |  | heaven |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to heaven=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **have** | past | men *= man* | no power |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent power=Patient |
| 5 | **flee** | to-infinitive | men *= man* *not said here* | this way or that way |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **flee** | past | the people |  |  | the wilderness |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to wilderness=Initial\_Location |
| 7 | **turn back** | past | the people |  |  |  |  | upon the pursuers | vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **smoke** |  | the city |  |  |  |  |  | nom smoke «phenomenon intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיִּפְנ֣וּ אַנְשֵׁי֩ הָעַ֨י אַחֲרֵיהֶ֜ם וַיִּרְא֗וּ וְהִנֵּ֨ה עָלָ֜ה עֲשַׁ֤ן הָעִיר֙ הַשָּׁמַ֔יְמָה וְלֹא־הָיָ֨ה בָהֶ֥ם יָדַ֛יִם לָנ֖וּס הֵ֣נָּה וָהֵ֑נָּה וְהָעָם֙ הַנָּ֣ס הַמִּדְבָּ֔ר נֶהְפַּ֖ךְ אֶל־הָרוֹדֵֽף׃

[Joshua 8:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JOS.8.20/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JOS:175` 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: [Joshua 8:19 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JOS.174/)
- next →: [Joshua 8:21 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JOS.176/)
- ↑ back to [Joshua 8:20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JOS.8.20/)