---
title: Exodus 18:6 (JPS 1917) — and he said unto Moses: 'I thy father-in-law Jethro am coming unto t… · tree and pragmatics
description: and he said unto Moses: 'I thy father-in-law Jethro am coming unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.' Who acts: Jethro, I. Exodus 18:6 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 18:6 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
and he said unto Moses: 'I thy father-in-law Jethro am coming unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Jethro, I · **What happens:** say, come · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Exodus 18:6 · 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 (Jethro, I), 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:506
# text = and he said unto Moses: 'I thy father-in-law Jethro am coming unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.'
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	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
9	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	_
14	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	Jethro	Jethro	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
16	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	ccomp	_	_
18	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	17	obl	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nummod	_	_
28	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	conj	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nmod	_	_
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
32	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=assert, polarity=none

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Jethro |  |  |  |  | unto Moses | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **come** | present · progressive | I |  |  |  |  | unto thee | 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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֲנִ֛י חֹתֶנְךָ֥ יִתְר֖וֹ בָּ֣א אֵלֶ֑יךָ וְאִ֨שְׁתְּךָ֔ וּשְׁנֵ֥י בָנֶ֖יהָ עִמָּֽהּ׃

[Exodus 18:6: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.18.6/)

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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:506` 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 18:5 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.505/)
- next →: [Exodus 18:7 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.507/)
- ↑ back to [Exodus 18:6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.18.6/)