---
title: Exodus 17:7 (JPS 1917) — And the name of the place was called Massah, and Meribah, because of… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the name of the place was called Massah, and Meribah, because of the striving of the children of Israel, and because they tried the LORD, saying: 'Is the LORD among us, or not?' Who acts: people, children. Exodus 17:7 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 17:7 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the name of the place was called Massah, and Meribah, because of the striving of the children of Israel, and because they tried the LORD, saying: 'Is the LORD among us, or not?'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, children · **What happens:** call, try, say, be, name, strive · **To what, where:** name, LORD, place · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Exodus 17:7 · 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, children), 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:491
# text = And the name of the place was called Massah, and Meribah, because of the striving of the children of Israel, and because they tried the LORD, saying: 'Is the LORD among us, or not?'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	Massah	Massah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	xcomp	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	Meribah	Meribah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	17	case	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	fixed	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	striving	striving	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
31	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	advcl	_	_
32	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	36	punct	_	_
33	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	36	punct	_	_
34	Is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	ccomp	_	_
37	among	among	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	36	nmod	_	_
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
40	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
41	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	36	conj	_	_
42	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	36	punct	_	_
43	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	36	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no 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 | **call** | past · passive |  | the name of the place |  |  |  | because the striving of the children of Israel | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 2 | **try** | past | people | the LORD |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lord=Eventuality |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | present |  | the LORD |  |  |  | among us | tree rules |
| 5 | **name** |  |  | the place |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: of=patient |
| 6 | **strive** |  | the children of Israel |  |  |  |  |  | nom striving «act intransitive»: of=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 -->
וַיִּקְרָא֙ שֵׁ֣ם הַמָּק֔וֹם מַסָּ֖ה וּמְרִיבָ֑ה עַל־רִ֣יב ׀ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל וְעַ֨ל נַסֹּתָ֤ם אֶת־יְהוָה֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר הֲיֵ֧שׁ יְהוָ֛ה בְּקִרְבֵּ֖נוּ אִם־אָֽיִן׃פ

[Exodus 17:7: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.17.7/)

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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:491` 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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