---
title: Exodus 34:12 (JPS 1917) — Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants… · tree and pragmatics
description: Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest they be for a snare in the midst of thee. Who acts: you, thou, inhabitants. Exodus 34:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 34:12 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest they be for a snare in the midst of thee.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, thou, inhabitants · **What happens:** take, make, go, be · **To what, where:** heed, thyself, covenant, midst

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Exodus 34:12 · 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 (you, thou, inhabitants), 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:1018
# text = Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest they be for a snare in the midst of thee.
1	Take	take	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	heed	heed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	thyself	thyself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes|Style=Arch	1	obl	_	_
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	8	nsubj	_	_
8	make	make	VERB	VB	Mood=Sub|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	advcl	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	covenant	covenant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	inhabitants	inhabitant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	whither	whither	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
18	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	19	nsubj	_	_
19	goest	go	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	cop	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	snare	snare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	advcl	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	29	nmod	_	_
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: warn
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=warn

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | imperative | you *not said here* | heed |  | thyself |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent heed=Theme to thyself=Destination |
| 2 | **make** | infinitive | thou | a covenant |  |  |  | with the inhabitants of the land | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset covenant=Product |
| 3 | **go** | present | thou |  |  |  |  | whither *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | infinitive | inhabitants *= inhabitant* |  |  | the midst of thee |  | for a snare | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
הִשָּׁ֣מֶר לְךָ֗ פֶּן־תִּכְרֹ֤ת בְּרִית֙ לְיוֹשֵׁ֣ב הָאָ֔רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַתָּ֖ה בָּ֣א עָלֶ֑יהָ פֶּן־יִהְיֶ֥ה לְמוֹקֵ֖שׁ בְּקִרְבֶּֽךָ׃

[Exodus 34:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.34.12/)

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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:1018` 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 34:11 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.1017/)
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