---
title: Deuteronomy 21:6 (JPS 1917) — And all the elders of that city, who are nearest unto the slain man,… · tree and pragmatics
description: And all the elders of that city, who are nearest unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. Who acts: elders. Deuteronomy 21:6 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.567/)

<!-- 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 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/DEU/21/) / [21:6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/DEU.21.6/) / JPS 1

# Deuteronomy 21:6 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And all the elders of that city, who are nearest unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** elders · **What happens:** be, wash, break · **To what, where:** hands, neck, valley

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Deuteronomy 21:6 · 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 (elders), 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:567
# text = And all the elders of that city, who are nearest unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
2	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	4	det:predet	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	elders	elder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
10	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	nearest	near	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	acl:relcl	_	_
12	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	slain	slain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	wash	wash	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	over	over	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	heifer	heifer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
24	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	acl:relcl	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	valley	valley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	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 | **is** | present | all elders of that city |  |  |  |  | unto the slain man; near *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **wash** | shall | all elders of that city | elders's hands |  |  |  | over the heifer | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Patient |
| 3 | **break** | past · passive |  | neck |  | the valley |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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 -->
וְכֹ֗ל זִקְנֵי֙ הָעִ֣יר הַהִ֔וא הַקְּרֹבִ֖ים אֶל־הֶחָלָ֑ל יִרְחֲצוּ֙ אֶת־יְדֵיהֶ֔ם עַל־הָעֶגְלָ֖ה הָעֲרוּפָ֥ה בַנָּֽחַל׃

[Deuteronomy 21:6: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/DEU.21.6/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:DEU:567` 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 21:5 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/DEU.566/)
- next →: [Deuteronomy 21:7 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/DEU.568/)
- ↑ back to [Deuteronomy 21:6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/DEU.21.6/)