---
title: Exodus 6:12 (JPS 1917) — And Moses spoke before the LORD, saying: 'Behold, the children of Is… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Moses spoke before the LORD, saying: 'Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips?' Who acts: Moses, children, Pharaoh. Exodus 6:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 6:12 · JPS 1917

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And Moses spoke before the LORD, saying: 'Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips?'

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**Who acts:** Moses, children, Pharaoh · **What happens:** speak, say, not hearken, hear, be · **To what, where:** me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Exodus 6:12 · 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 (Moses, children, Pharaoh), 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:151
# text = And Moses spoke before the LORD, saying: 'Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips?'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	before	before	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
9	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
10	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	_
11	Behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	19	discourse	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
17	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	hearkened	hearken	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	ccomp	_	_
20	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	_
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
23	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	27	advmod	_	_
24	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	advmod	_	_
25	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	Pharaoh	Pharaoh	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
28	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	34	nsubj	_	_
31	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	uncircumcised	uncircumcised	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	lips	lip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	acl:relcl	_	_
35	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	_
36	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no question
- act: disagree
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | Moses |  |  |  | before the LORD |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | Moses *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **hearken** | present · perfect | the children of Israel |  |  |  |  | unto me | tree rules |
| 4 | **hear** | shall | Pharaoh | me |  |  | then |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer i=Stimulus |
| 5 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | of uncircumcised lips | 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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר מֹשֶׁ֔ה לִפְנֵ֥י יְהוָ֖ה לֵאמֹ֑ר הֵ֤ן בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ לֹֽא־שָׁמְע֣וּ אֵלַ֔י וְאֵיךְ֙ יִשְׁמָעֵ֣נִי פַרְעֹ֔ה וַאֲנִ֖י עֲרַ֥ל שְׂפָתָֽיִם׃פ

[Exodus 6:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.6.12/)

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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:151` 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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