---
title: Exodus 4:25 (JPS 1917) — Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said: 'Surely a bridegroom of blood art thou to me.' Who acts: Zipporah, thou. Exodus 4:25 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 4:25 · JPS 1917

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Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said: 'Surely a bridegroom of blood art thou to me.'

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**Who acts:** Zipporah, thou · **What happens:** take, cut off, cast, say, be · **To what, where:** flint, foreskin, feet, bridegroom, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Exodus 4:25 · 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 (Zipporah, 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:EXO:106
# text = Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said: 'Surely a bridegroom of blood art thou to me.'
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	Zipporah	Zipporah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	flint	flint	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
9	off	off	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	foreskin	foreskin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	cast	cast	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
26	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
27	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	30	punct	_	_
28	Surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	bridegroom	bridegroom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	ccomp	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
33	art	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
34	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	obl	_	_
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
38	'	'	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 | Zipporah | a flint |  |  | then |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flint=Theme |
| 2 | **cut off** | past | Zipporah *not said here* | the foreskin of Zipporah's son |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector foreskin=Eventuality |
| 3 | **cast** | past | Zipporah *not said here* | foreskin |  | lord's feet |  |  | vn throw-17.1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent it=Theme at foot=Destination |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Zipporah |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | present | thou | a bridegroom | me |  |  | of blood; surely *property* | 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}

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וַתִּקַּ֨ח צִפֹּרָ֜ה צֹ֗ר וַתִּכְרֹת֙ אֶת־עָרְלַ֣ת בְּנָ֔הּ וַתַּגַּ֖ע לְרַגְלָ֑יו וַתֹּ֕אמֶר כִּ֧י חֲתַן־דָּמִ֛ים אַתָּ֖ה לִֽי׃

[Exodus 4:25: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.4.25/)

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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:106` 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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