---
title: Exodus 4:23 (JPS 1917) — Behold, I will slay thy son, thy first-born.' — · tree and pragmatics
description: Behold, I will slay thy son, thy first-born.' — Who acts: I. Exodus 4:23 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 4:23 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2

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Behold, I will slay thy son, thy first-born.' —

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** slay, bear · **To what, where:** son

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This is Exodus 4:23 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 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 (I), 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:104
# text = Behold, I will slay thy son, thy first-born.' —
1	Behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	_
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	slay	slay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	12	nmod:poss	_	_
10	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	12	amod	_	_
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	_
12	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	appos	_	_
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
14	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
15	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: promise
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **slay** | future | I | thy son |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 2 | **bear** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |

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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 -->
וָאֹמַ֣ר אֵלֶ֗יךָ שַׁלַּ֤ח אֶת־בְּנִי֙ וְיַֽעַבְדֵ֔נִי וַתְּמָאֵ֖ן לְשַׁלְּח֑וֹ הִנֵּה֙ אָנֹכִ֣י הֹרֵ֔ג אֶת־בִּנְךָ֖ בְּכֹרֶֽךָ׃

[Exodus 4:23: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.4.23/)

<!-- .note -->
This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. [And I have said unto thee: Let My son go, that he may serve Me; and thou hast refused to let him go.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.103/)
2. **Behold, I will slay thy son, thy first-born.' —**

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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:104` 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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