---
title: Exodus 9:2 (JPS 1917) — For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, · tree and pragmatics
description: For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, Who acts: thou, people. Exodus 9:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 9:2 · JPS 1917

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For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still,

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**Who acts:** thou, people · **What happens:** refuse, not let, go, hold · **To what, where:** people

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This is Exodus 9:2 · 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 (thou, people), 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:236
# text = For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still,
1	For	for	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	nsubj	_	_
4	refuse	refuse	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	wilt	will	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	still	still	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: other
- act: request
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=other

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **refuse** | present | thou |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **let** | to-infinitive | thou *not said here* | people |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **go** | infinitive | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **hold** | future | thou *not said here* | people |  |  | still |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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}

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כִּ֛י אִם־מָאֵ֥ן אַתָּ֖ה לְשַׁלֵּ֑חַ וְעוֹדְךָ֖ מַחֲזִ֥יק בָּֽם׃

[Exodus 9:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.9.2/)

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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:236` 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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