---
title: Deuteronomy 6:21 (JPS 1917) — then thou shalt say unto thy son: 'We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egyp… · tree and pragmatics
description: then thou shalt say unto thy son: 'We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Who acts: thou, We, LORD. Deuteronomy 6:21 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Deuteronomy 6:21 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
then thou shalt say unto thy son: 'We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

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**Who acts:** thou, We, LORD · **What happens:** say, be, bring · **To what, where:** bondmen, Egypt, us · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Deuteronomy 6:21 · 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 (thou, We, LORD), 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:DEU:216
# text = then thou shalt say unto thy son: 'We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
1	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	nsubj	_	_
3	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
9	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	_
10	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
12	Pharaoh	Pharaoh	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	's	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	bondmen	bondman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	ccomp	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
22	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	out	out	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	fixed	_	_
25	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | shall | thou |  |  |  | then | unto thy son | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | We | Pharaoh's bondmen |  | Egypt |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **bring** | past | the LORD | us |  | Egypt |  | with a mighty hand | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent we=Theme out egypt=Initial\_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 -->
וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ לְבִנְךָ֔ עֲבָדִ֛ים הָיִ֥ינוּ לְפַרְעֹ֖ה בְּמִצְרָ֑יִם וַיּוֹצִיאֵ֧נוּ יְהוָ֛ה מִמִּצְרַ֖יִם בְּיָ֥ד חֲזָקָֽה׃

[Deuteronomy 6:21: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/DEU.6.21/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:DEU:216` 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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