---
title: Exodus 5:15 (JPS 1917) — Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Phar… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying: 'Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants? Who acts: officers, thou. Exodus 5:15 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 5:15 · JPS 1917

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Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying: 'Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants?

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**Who acts:** officers, thou · **What happens:** come, cry, say, deal · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Exodus 5:15 · 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 (officers, 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:131
# text = Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying: 'Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants?
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	officers	officer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
12	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	Pharaoh	Pharaoh	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
17	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	_
18	Wherefore	wherefore	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
19	dealest	deal	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	_
20	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	19	nsubj	_	_
21	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed form=wh

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the officers of the children of Israel |  |  |  | then |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | the officers of the children of Israel *not said here* |  |  |  |  | unto Pharaoh | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the officers of the children of Israel *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **deal** | present | thou |  |  |  |  | with thy servants; thus, wherefore *property* | vn cope-83 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with servant=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}

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וַיָּבֹ֗אוּ שֹֽׁטְרֵי֙ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וַיִּצְעֲק֥וּ אֶל־פַּרְעֹ֖ה לֵאמֹ֑ר לָ֧מָּה תַעֲשֶׂ֦ה כֹ֖ה לַעֲבָדֶֽיךָ׃

[Exodus 5:15: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.5.15/)

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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:131` 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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