---
title: Exodus 7:12 (JPS 1917) — For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents; but… · tree and pragmatics
description: For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents; but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. Who acts: wonders, rod. Exodus 7:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 7:12 · JPS 1917

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For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents; but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.

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**Who acts:** wonders, rod · **What happens:** cast down, become, swallow up · **To what, where:** rod, man, serpents, rods

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This is Exodus 7:12 · 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 (wonders, rod), 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:189
# text = For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents; but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.
1	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	cast	cast	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	down	down	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	iobj	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	rod	rod	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	serpents	serpent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	xcomp	_	_
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	Aaron	Aaron	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	's	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	rod	rod	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	swallowed	swallow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
20	up	up	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	rods	rod	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=narrate

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cast down** | past | wonders *= wonder* | Pharaoh's rod | every man |  |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP PP»: agent=Agent man=Beneficiary rod=Product |
| 2 | **become** | past | wonders *= wonder* | serpents |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **swallow up** | past | Aaron's rod | wonders's rods |  |  |  |  | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rod=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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
וַיַּשְׁלִ֙יכוּ֙ אִ֣ישׁ מַטֵּ֔הוּ וַיִּהְי֖וּ לְתַנִּינִ֑ם וַיִּבְלַ֥ע מַטֵּֽה־אַהֲרֹ֖ן אֶת־מַטֹּתָֽם׃

[Exodus 7:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.7.12/)

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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:189` 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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