---
title: Joshua 2:2 (JPS 1917) — And it was told the king of Jericho, saying: 'Behold, there came men… · tree and pragmatics
description: And it was told the king of Jericho, saying: 'Behold, there came men in hither to-night of the children of Israel to search out the land.' Who acts: men. Joshua 2:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Joshua 2:2 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And it was told the king of Jericho, saying: 'Behold, there came men in hither to-night of the children of Israel to search out the land.'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** men · **What happens:** tell, say, come, search out · **To what, where:** name, king, land · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Joshua 2:2 · 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), 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:20
# text = And it was told the king of Jericho, saying: 'Behold, there came men in hither to-night of the children of Israel to search out the land.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	iobj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Jericho	Jericho	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
12	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	_
13	Behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	16	discourse	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	16	expl	_	_
16	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
17	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	hither	hither	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	_
22	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl:unmarked	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	search	search	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
30	out	out	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
34	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed voice=narrator

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | name | the king of Jericho |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient king=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **come** | past | men of the children of Israel |  |  | there | night | hither *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **search out** | to-infinitive | men of the children of Israel *not said here* | the land |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent land=Location |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֵּ֣אָמַ֔ר לְמֶ֥לֶךְ יְרִיח֖וֹ לֵאמֹ֑ר הִנֵּ֣ה אֲ֠נָשִׁים בָּ֣אוּ הֵ֧נָּה הַלַּ֛יְלָה מִבְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל לַחְפֹּ֥ר אֶת־הָאָֽרֶץ׃

[Joshua 2:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JOS.2.2/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JOS:20` 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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