---
title: Exodus 1:18 (JPS 1917) — And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them: '… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them: 'Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men-children alive?' Who acts: king, ye. Exodus 1:18 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 1:18 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them: 'Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men-children alive?'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** king, ye · **What happens:** call, say, do, save · **To what, where:** thing, men children · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Exodus 1:18 · 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, ye), 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:19
# text = And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them: 'Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men-children alive?'
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	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	midwives	midwife	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	_
15	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
16	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	_
17	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
18	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	20	nsubj	_	_
20	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	ccomp	_	_
21	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
22	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	saved	save	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
28	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	compound	_	_
29	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	28	punct	_	_
30	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
31	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	xcomp	_	_
32	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
33	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** | past | the king of Egypt |  |  |  |  | for the midwives | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient S\_INF»: agent=Agent for midwife=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the king of Egypt *not said here* |  |  |  |  | unto midwives *= midwife* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** | present · perfect | ye | this thing |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Eventuality |
| 4 | **save** | present · perfect | ye *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 -->
וַיִּקְרָ֤א מֶֽלֶךְ־מִצְרַ֙יִם֙ לַֽמְיַלְּדֹ֔ת וַיֹּ֣אמֶר לָהֶ֔ן מַדּ֥וּעַ עֲשִׂיתֶ֖ן הַדָּבָ֣ר הַזֶּ֑ה וַתְּחַיֶּ֖יןָ אֶת־הַיְלָדִֽים׃

[Exodus 1:18: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.1.18/)

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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:19` 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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- ← previous: [Exodus 1:17 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.18/)
- next →: [Exodus 1:19 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.20/)
- ↑ back to [Exodus 1:18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.1.18/)