---
title: Deuteronomy 12:3 (JPS 1917) — And ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pilla… · tree and pragmatics
description: And ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods; and ye shall destroy their name out of that place. Who acts: ye, nations. Deuteronomy 12:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Deuteronomy 12:3 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods; and ye shall destroy their name out of that place.

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**Who acts:** ye, nations · **What happens:** break down, dash, burn, hew down, destroy, image · **To what, where:** altars, pillars, pieces, Asherim, graven images, name

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Deuteronomy 12:3 · 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 (ye, nations), 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:353
# text = And ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods; and ye shall destroy their name out of that place.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	nsubj	_	_
3	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	down	down	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	altars	altar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	dash	dash	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	pillars	pillar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	burn	burn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	Asherim	Asherim	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	26	nsubj	_	_
25	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	hew	hew	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
27	down	down	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	graven	graven	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	images	image	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	gods	god	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nmod	_	_
34	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
36	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	38	nsubj	_	_
37	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
38	destroy	destroy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
39	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
41	out	out	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
42	of	of	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	44	det	_	_
44	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break down** | shall | ye | nations's altars |  |  |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent altar=Patient |
| 2 | **dash** | infinitive | ye *not said here* | nations's pillars |  | pieces |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent pillar=Theme in piece=Trajectory |
| 3 | **burn** | infinitive | ye *not said here* | nations's Asherim |  |  |  | with fire | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent asherim=Patient with fire=Instrument |
| 4 | **hew down** | shall | ye | the graven images of nations's gods |  |  |  |  | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent image=Patient |
| 5 | **destroy** | shall | ye | nations's name |  | that place |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent name=Patient |
| 6 | **image** |  |  | nations's gods |  |  |  |  | nom image «cognition transitive»: of=patient |
| 7 | **name** |  | nations *= nation* |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=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 -->
וְנִתַּצְתֶּ֣ם אֶת־מִזְבּחֹתָ֗םוְשִׁבַּרְתֶּם֙ אֶת־מַצֵּ֣בֹתָ֔ם וַאֲשֵֽׁרֵיהֶם֙ תִּשְׂרְפ֣וּן בָּאֵ֔שׁ וּפְסִילֵ֥י אֱלֹֽהֵיהֶ֖ם תְּגַדֵּע֑וּן וְאִבַּדְתֶּ֣ם אֶת־שְׁמָ֔ם מִן־הַמָּק֖וֹם הַהֽוּא׃

[Deuteronomy 12:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/DEU.12.3/)

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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:353` 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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