---
title: Exodus 2:11 (JPS 1917) — And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown up, that he… · tree and pragmatics
description: And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown up, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. Who acts: child, Moses, Egyptian, brethren. Exodus 2:11 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.36/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Torah](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/) / [Exodus](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO/) / [chapter 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO/2/) / [2:11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.2.11/) / JPS 1

# Exodus 2:11 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown up, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** child, Moses, Egyptian, brethren · **What happens:** come, pass, grow up, go out, look, see · **To what, where:** Moses, Egyptian, Hebrew

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Exodus 2:11 · 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 (child, Moses, Egyptian, brethren), 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:36
# text = And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown up, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	13	mark	_	_
11	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
14	up	up	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
19	out	out	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	brethren	brethren	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	burdens	burden	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
29	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	32	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
33	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	Egyptian	Egyptian	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	smiting	smite	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	34	acl	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	Hebrew	Hebrew	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
39	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	37	appos	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	brethren	brethren	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	nmod	_	_
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- 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 | **come** | past | child |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pass** | to-infinitive | child *not said here* |  |  |  | day |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **grow up** | past · passive |  | Moses |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **go out** | past | Moses |  |  |  |  | unto Moses's brethren; out *property* | vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **look** | past | Moses *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on brethren's burdens | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on burden=Theme |
| 6 | **see** | past | Moses | a Egyptian |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer egyptian=Stimulus |
| 7 | **smite** | gerund | a Egyptian *not said here* | a Hebrew |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus hebrew=Experiencer |
| 8 | **burden** |  | brethren |  |  |  |  |  | nom burden «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיְהִ֣י ׀ בַּיָּמִ֣ים הָהֵ֗ם וַיִּגְדַּ֤ל מֹשֶׁה֙ וַיֵּצֵ֣א אֶל־אֶחָ֔יו וַיַּ֖רְא בְּסִבְלֹתָ֑ם וַיַּרְא֙ אִ֣ישׁ מִצְרִ֔י מַכֶּ֥ה אִישׁ־עִבְרִ֖י מֵאֶחָֽיו׃

[Exodus 2:11: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.2.11/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:EXO:36` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Exodus 2:10 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.35/)
- next →: [Exodus 2:12 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.37/)
- ↑ back to [Exodus 2:11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.2.11/)