---
title: Exodus 2:18 (JPS 1917) — And when they came to Reuel their father, he said: 'How is it that y… · tree and pragmatics
description: And when they came to Reuel their father, he said: 'How is it that ye are come so soon to-day?' Who acts: shepherds, Moses, ye. Exodus 2:18 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 2:18 · JPS 1917

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And when they came to Reuel their father, he said: 'How is it that ye are come so soon to-day?'

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**Who acts:** shepherds, Moses, ye · **What happens:** come, say, be · **To what, where:** Reuel · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Exodus 2:18 · 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 (shepherds, Moses, 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:44
# text = And when they came to Reuel their father, he said: 'How is it that ye are come so soon to-day?'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Reuel	Reuel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
13	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	_
14	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	ccomp	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	expl	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	20	nsubj	_	_
19	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	csubj	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	20	advmod	_	_
23	to	to	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	_
25	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl:unmarked	_	_
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
27	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | shepherds *= shepherd* |  |  | Reuel |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to reuel=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Moses |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | how *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **come** | present · passive | ye |  |  |  | day | soon *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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וַתָּבֹ֕אנָה אֶל־רְעוּאֵ֖ל אֲבִיהֶ֑ן וַיֹּ֕אמֶר מַדּ֛וּעַ מִהַרְתֶּ֥ן בֹּ֖א הַיּֽוֹם׃

[Exodus 2:18: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.2.18/)

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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:44` 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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- ↑ back to [Exodus 2:18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.2.18/)