---
title: Exodus 1:15 (JPS 1917) — And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah; Who acts: king, name. Exodus 1:15 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 1:15 · JPS 1917

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And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah;

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**Who acts:** king, name · **What happens:** speak, be, name · **To what, where:** Shiphrah, one, other Puah · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Exodus 1:15 · 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 (king, name), 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:16
# text = And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah;
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	Hebrew	Hebrew	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	midwives	midwife	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	obl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	Shiphrah	Shiphrah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	acl:relcl	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	Puah	Puah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
29	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | the king of Egypt |  |  |  |  | to the Hebrew midwives | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to midwife=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | the name of the one | Shiphrah |  |  |  | of the Hebrew midwives | tree rules |
| 3 | **name** |  |  | the one |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: of=patient |
| 4 | **name** |  |  | the other Puah |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ מֶ֣לֶךְ מִצְרַ֔יִם לַֽמְיַלְּדֹ֖ת הָֽעִבְרִיֹּ֑ת אֲשֶׁ֨ר שֵׁ֤ם הָֽאַחַת֙ שִׁפְרָ֔ה וְשֵׁ֥ם הַשֵּׁנִ֖ית פּוּעָֽה׃

[Exodus 1:15: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.1.15/)

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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:16` 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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