---
title: Malachi 3:8 (JPS 1917) — Will a man rob God? · tree and pragmatics
description: Will a man rob God? Who acts: man. Malachi 3:8 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Malachi 3:8 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 3

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Will a man rob God?

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** rob · **To what, where:** God

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This is Malachi 3:8 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 3 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 (man), 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:MAL:53
# text = Will a man rob God?
1	Will	will	AUX	MD	_	4	aux	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	rob	rob	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rob** | future | a man | God |  |  |  |  | vn cheat-10.6.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent god=Source |

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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}

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הֲיִקְבַּ֨ע אָדָ֜ם אֱלֹהִ֗ים כִּ֤י אַתֶּם֙ קֹבְעִ֣ים אֹתִ֔י וַאֲמַרְתֶּ֖ם בַּמֶּ֣ה קְבַעֲנ֑וּךָ הַֽמַּעֲשֵׂ֖ר וְהַתְּרוּמָֽה׃

[Malachi 3:8: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/MAL.3.8/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. **Will a man rob God?**
2. [Yet ye rob Me.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/MAL.54/)
3. [But ye say: 'Wherein have we robbed Thee?' In tithes and heave-offerings.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/MAL.55/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:MAL:53` 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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