---
title: Exodus 2:12 (JPS 1917) — And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was… · tree and pragmatics
description: And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he smote the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. Who acts: Moses. Exodus 2:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 2:12 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he smote the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Moses · **What happens:** look, see, be, smite, hide · **To what, where:** way, man, Egyptian, Moses, sand · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Exodus 2:12 · 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 (Moses), 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:37
# text = And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he smote the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
11	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	13	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	18	expl	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	18	det	_	_
18	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	ccomp	_	_
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	smote	smite	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	Egyptian	Egyptian	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	hid	hide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	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 | **look** | past | Moses | this way and that way |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **see** | past | Moses |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is a** | past |  | no man |  | there |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **smite** | past | Moses | the Egyptian |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus egyptian=Experiencer |
| 5 | **hide** | past | Moses *not said here* | Moses |  | the sand |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent he=Patient in sand=Location |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיִּ֤פֶן כֹּה֙ וָכֹ֔ה וַיַּ֖רְא כִּ֣י אֵ֣ין אִ֑ישׁ וַיַּךְ֙ אֶת־הַמִּצְרִ֔י וַֽיִּטְמְנֵ֖הוּ בַּחֽוֹל׃

[Exodus 2:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.2.12/)

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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:37` 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 2:11 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.36/)
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