---
title: Exodus 5:2 (JPS 1917) — And Pharaoh said: 'Who is the LORD, that I should hearken unto His v… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Pharaoh said: 'Who is the LORD, that I should hearken unto His voice to let Israel go? Who acts: Pharaoh, LORD, I, Israel. Exodus 5:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 5:2 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

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And Pharaoh said: 'Who is the LORD, that I should hearken unto His voice to let Israel go?

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**Who acts:** Pharaoh, LORD, I, Israel · **What happens:** say, be, hearken, let, go · **To what, where:** LORD, Israel · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Exodus 5:2 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 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 (Pharaoh, LORD, I, Israel), 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:115
# text = And Pharaoh said: 'Who is the LORD, that I should hearken unto His voice to let Israel go?
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Pharaoh	Pharaoh	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
5	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	_
6	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	ccomp	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	hearken	hearken	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl:relcl	_	_
15	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
20	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
21	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: wh-question
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- indirect: yes
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Pharaoh |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | present | the LORD |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **hearken** | should | I | the LORD *not said here* |  |  |  | unto LORD's voice | tree rules |
| 4 | **let** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | Israel |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **go** | infinitive | Israel *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר פַּרְעֹ֔ה מִ֤י יְהוָה֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶשְׁמַ֣ע בְּקֹל֔וֹ לְשַׁלַּ֖ח אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל לֹ֤א יָדַ֙עְתִּי֙ אֶת־יְהוָ֔ה וְגַ֥ם אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל לֹ֥א אֲשַׁלֵּֽחַ׃

[Exodus 5:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.5.2/)

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

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1. **And Pharaoh said: 'Who is the LORD, that I should hearken unto His voice to let Israel go?**
2. [I know not the LORD, and moreover I will not let Israel go.'](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.116/)

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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:115` 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 5:1 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.114/)
- next →: [Exodus 5:2 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.116/)
- ↑ back to [Exodus 5:2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.5.2/)