---
title: Deuteronomy 16:21 (JPS 1917) — Thou shalt not plant thee an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the… · tree and pragmatics
description: Thou shalt not plant thee an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee. Who acts: Thou. Deuteronomy 16:21 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/torah/jps/DEU.476/)

<!-- 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/) / [Torah](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/) / [Deuteronomy](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/DEU/) / [chapter 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/DEU/16/) / [16:21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/DEU.16.21/) / JPS 1

# Deuteronomy 16:21 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Thou shalt not plant thee an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Thou · **What happens:** not plant, make · **To what, where:** Asherah, thee, altar, LORD

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Deuteronomy 16:21 · 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), 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:476
# text = Thou shalt not plant thee an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee.
1	Thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	nsubj	_	_
2	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	plant	plant	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	iobj	_	_
6	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Asherah	Asherah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	det	_	_
10	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	altar	altar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	appos	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	obj	_	_
23	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	25	nsubj	_	_
24	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	acl:relcl	_	_
26	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	25	iobj	_	_
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **plant** | shall | Thou | a Asherah of any kind of tree | thee | the altar of the LORD |  |  | vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Agent thou=Theme asherah=Destination |
| 2 | **make** | shall | thou | the LORD | thee |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset thou=Beneficiary which=Product |

<!-- .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 -->
לֹֽא־תִטַּ֥ע לְךָ֛ אֲשֵׁרָ֖ה כָּל־עֵ֑ץ אֵ֗צֶל מִזְבַּ֛ח יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ אֲשֶׁ֥ר תַּעֲשֶׂה־לָּֽךְ׃ס

[Deuteronomy 16:21: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/DEU.16.21/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:DEU:476` 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: [Deuteronomy 16:20 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/DEU.475/)
- next →: [Deuteronomy 16:22 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/DEU.477/)
- ↑ back to [Deuteronomy 16:21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/DEU.16.21/)