---
title: Exodus 17:3 (JPS 1917) — And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured aga… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said: 'Wherefore hast thou brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?' Who acts: people, thou. Exodus 17:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# Exodus 17:3 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said: 'Wherefore hast thou brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?'

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**Who acts:** people, thou · **What happens:** thirst, murmur, say, bring up, kill · **To what, where:** Moses, us, Egypt · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Exodus 17:3 · 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 (people, thou), 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:487
# text = And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said: 'Wherefore hast thou brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	thirsted	thirst	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	murmured	murmur	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	against	against	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
18	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
19	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	_
20	Wherefore	wherefore	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
21	hast	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	23	nsubj	_	_
23	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	ccomp	_	_
24	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	up	up	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
26	out	out	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	fixed	_	_
28	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
32	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
34	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	conj	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
37	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	cattle	cattle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	conj	_	_
39	with	with	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	thirst	thirst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
41	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	_
42	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no question
- act: express
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- indirect: yes
- teacher: changed act=express, indirect=1, polarity=neg

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **thirst** | past | the people |  |  | there |  | for water | vn long-32.2-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for water=Theme |
| 2 | **murmur** *speech: other* | past | the people |  |  | Moses |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme against moses=Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **bring up** | present · perfect | thou | us |  | Egypt |  | wherefore *property* | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent we=Patient |
| 5 | **kill** | to-infinitive | thou *not said here* | us |  |  |  | with thirst | vn murder-42.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent we=Patient with thirst=Instrument |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיִּצְמָ֨א שָׁ֤ם הָעָם֙ לַמַּ֔יִם וַיָּ֥לֶן הָעָ֖ם עַל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה וַיֹּ֗אמֶר לָ֤מָּה זֶּה֙ הֶעֱלִיתָ֣נוּ מִמִּצְרַ֔יִם לְהָמִ֥ית אֹתִ֛י וְאֶת־בָּנַ֥י וְאֶת־מִקְנַ֖י בַּצָּמָֽא׃

[Exodus 17:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.17.3/)

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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:487` 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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