---
title: Exodus 1:17 (JPS 1917) — But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt comman… · tree and pragmatics
description: But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men-children alive. Who acts: midwives, king. Exodus 1:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 1:17 · JPS 1917

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But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men-children alive.

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**Who acts:** midwives, king · **What happens:** fear, command, save · **To what, where:** God, midwives, men children · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Exodus 1:17 · 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 (midwives, king), 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:18
# text = But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men-children alive.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	midwives	midwife	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	feared	fear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
15	commanded	command	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	saved	save	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	compound	_	_
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	_
23	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
24	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	xcomp	_	_
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fear** | past | the midwives | God |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer god=Stimulus |
| 2 | **command** | past | the king of Egypt | midwives *= midwife* |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: agent=Agent they=Eventuality |
| 3 | **save** | past | the midwives *not said here* | the men children |  |  |  | alive *property* | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=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 -->
וַתִּירֶ֤אןָ הַֽמְיַלְּדֹת֙ אֶת־הָ֣אֱלֹהִ֔ים וְלֹ֣א עָשׂ֔וּ כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר דִּבֶּ֥ר אֲלֵיהֶ֖ן מֶ֣לֶךְ מִצְרָ֑יִם וַתְּחַיֶּ֖יןָ אֶת־הַיְלָדִֽים׃

[Exodus 1:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.1.17/)

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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:18` 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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