---
title: Deuteronomy 15:17 (JPS 1917) — then thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear and into… · tree and pragmatics
description: then thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear and into the door, and he shall be thy bondman for ever. Who acts: thou, LORD. Deuteronomy 15:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Deuteronomy 15:17 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

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then thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear and into the door, and he shall be thy bondman for ever.

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**Who acts:** thou, LORD · **What happens:** take, thrust, be · **To what, where:** awl, ear, bondman

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This is Deuteronomy 15:17 · 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 (thou, 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:448
# text = then thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear and into the door, and he shall be thy bondman for ever.
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	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	awl	awl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	thrust	thrust	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	through	through	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	into	into	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
21	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	cop	_	_
23	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	bondman	bondman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	ever	ever	ADV	RB	_	24	obl	_	_
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: request
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed voice=character

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | shall | thou | a awl |  |  | then |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent awl=Theme |
| 2 | **thrust** | infinitive | thou *not said here* | awl |  | LORD's ear |  | into the door | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | shall | LORD | thy bondman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
וְלָקַחְתָּ֣ אֶת־הַמַּרְצֵ֗עַ וְנָתַתָּ֤ה בְאָזְנוֹ֙ וּבַדֶּ֔לֶת וְהָיָ֥ה לְךָ֖ עֶ֣בֶד עוֹלָ֑ם וְאַ֥ף לַאֲמָתְךָ֖ תַּעֲשֶׂה־כֵּֽן׃

[Deuteronomy 15:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/DEU.15.17/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. **then thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear and into the door, and he shall be thy bondman for ever.**
2. [And also unto thy bondwoman thou shalt do likewise.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/DEU.449/)

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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:448` 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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