---
title: Exodus 5:3 (JPS 1917) — Let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, an… · tree and pragmatics
description: Let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest He fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.' Who acts: you, us, we, God. Exodus 5:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 5:3 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest He fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.'

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**Who acts:** you, us, we, God, three days · **What happens:** let, go, pray, sacrifice, fall, journey · **To what, where:** us, journey, thee, wilderness

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Exodus 5:3 · 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 (you, us, we, God), 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:118
# text = Let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest He fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.'
1	Let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	xcomp	_	_
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	pray	pray	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
7	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	'	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
13	into	into	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	wilderness	wilderness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	sacrifice	sacrifice	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
19	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	appos	_	_
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
25	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	fall	fall	VERB	VB	Mood=Sub|VerbForm=Fin	1	advcl	_	_
28	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	obl	_	_
30	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	pestilence	pestilence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
33	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
34	with	with	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	_
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
38	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: request
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | imperative | you *not said here* | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **go** | infinitive | us *not said here* | three days's journey into the wilderness |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **pray** | present | we | thee |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **sacrifice** | infinitive | us *not said here* |  |  |  |  | unto the LORD | vn contribute-13.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **fall** | infinitive | God |  |  |  |  | upon us; with pestilence or the sword | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon we=Location |
| 6 | **journey** |  | three days |  |  | the wilderness |  |  | nom journey «act transitive»: poss=agent into=place |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ אֱלֹהֵ֥י הָעִבְרִ֖ים נִקְרָ֣א עָלֵ֑ינוּ נֵ֣לֲכָה נָּ֡א דֶּרֶךְ֩ שְׁלֹ֨שֶׁת יָמִ֜ים בַּמִּדְבָּ֗ר וְנִזְבְּחָה֙ לַֽיהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵ֔ינוּ פֶּ֨ן־יִפְגָּעֵ֔נוּ בַּדֶּ֖בֶר א֥וֹ בֶחָֽרֶב׃

[Exodus 5:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.5.3/)

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

<!-- .ens -->
1. [And they said: 'The God of the Hebrews hath met with us.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.117/)
2. **Let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest He fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.'**

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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:118` 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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