---
title: Exodus 4:20 (JPS 1917) — And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt; and Moses took the rod of God in his hand. Who acts: Moses. Exodus 4:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 4:20 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt; and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

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**Who acts:** Moses · **What happens:** take, set, return · **To what, where:** wife, ass, rod, hand

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This is Exodus 4:20 · 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 (Moses), 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:EXO:100
# text = And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt; and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
28	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	rod	rod	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | Moses |  | Moses's wife and Moses's sons |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument wife=Destination |
| 2 | **set** | past | Moses *not said here* | wife |  | a ass |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme upon ass=Destination |
| 3 | **return** | past | Moses |  |  |  |  | to the land of Egypt *result* | vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to land=Result |
| 4 | **take** | past | Moses | the rod of God |  | Moses's hand |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent rod=Value in hand=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 -->
וַיִּקַּ֨ח מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶת־אִשְׁתּ֣וֹ וְאֶת־בָּנָ֗יו וַיַּרְכִּבֵם֙ עַֽל־הַחֲמֹ֔ר וַיָּ֖שָׁב אַ֣רְצָה מִצְרָ֑יִם וַיִּקַּ֥ח מֹשֶׁ֛ה אֶת־מַטֵּ֥ה הָאֱלֹהִ֖ים בְּיָדֽוֹ׃

[Exodus 4:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.4.20/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:EXO:100` 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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- ← previous: [Exodus 4:19 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.99/)
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- ↑ back to [Exodus 4:20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.4.20/)