---
title: Obadiah 1:5 (JPS 1917) — If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night — how art thou cut off!… · tree and pragmatics
description: If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night — how art thou cut off! — would they not steal till they had enough? Who acts: thieves, robbers. Obadiah 1:5 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/OBA.5/)

<!-- 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/) / [Obadiah](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/OBA/) / [chapter 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/OBA/1/) / [1:5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/OBA.1.5/) / JPS 1

# Obadiah 1:5 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night — how art thou cut off! — would they not steal till they had enough?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** thieves, robbers · **What happens:** come, cut off, not steal, have · **To what, where:** thee, thou, enough

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Obadiah 1:5 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2 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 (thieves, robbers), 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:OBA:5
# text = If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night — how art thou cut off! — would they not steal till they had enough?
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	thieves	thief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	3	obl	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
7	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	robbers	robber	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
13	art	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
14	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	parataxis	_	_
16	off	off	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
18	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	steal	steal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
23	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
26	enough	enough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	obj	_	_
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | thieves |  |  | thee |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to thou=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **cut off** | present · passive |  | thou |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: subject=Eventuality |
| 3 | **not** **steal** | would | robbers *= robber* |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | past | robbers *= robber* | enough |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent enough=Patient |

<!-- .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 -->
אִם־גַּנָּבִ֤ים בָּאֽוּ־לְךָ֙ אִם־שׁ֣וֹדְדֵי לַ֔יְלָה אֵ֣יךְ נִדְמֵ֔יתָה הֲל֥וֹא יִגְנְב֖וּ דַּיָּ֑ם אִם־בֹּֽצְרִים֙ בָּ֣אוּ לָ֔ךְ הֲל֖וֹא יַשְׁאִ֥ירוּ עֹלֵלֽוֹת׃

[Obadiah 1:5: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/OBA.1.5/)

<!-- .note -->
This verse in JPS 1917:

<!-- .ens -->
1. **If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night — how art thou cut off! — would they not steal till they had enough?**
2. [If grape-gatherers came to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/OBA.6/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:OBA:5` 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: [Obadiah 1:4 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/OBA.4/)
- next →: [Obadiah 1:5 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/OBA.6/)
- ↑ back to [Obadiah 1:5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/OBA.1.5/)