---
title: Exodus 20:17 (JPS 1917) — Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house; thou shalt not covet thy… · tree and pragmatics
description: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. Who acts: Thou, thing. Exodus 20:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# Exodus 20:17 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

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**Who acts:** Thou, thing · **What happens:** not covet, be · **To what, where:** house, wife

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This is Exodus 20:17 · 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 (Thou, thing), 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:570
# text = Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
1	Thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	nsubj	_	_
2	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	covet	covet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
10	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	13	nsubj	_	_
11	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	covet	covet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
14	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	's	's	PART	POS	_	15	case	_	_
17	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	23	cc	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
21	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	_
23	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	29	cc	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
27	maid	maid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	_
29	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	_
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	33	cc	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	ox	ox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	_
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	37	cc	_	_
36	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	_
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
39	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	41	cc	_	_
40	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	41	det	_	_
41	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	_
42	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	45	nsubj	_	_
43	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	45	cop	_	_
44	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	45	nmod:poss	_	_
45	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	acl:relcl	_	_
46	's	's	PART	POS	_	45	case	_	_
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **covet** | shall | Thou | thy neighbour's house |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot house=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **covet** | shall | thou | thy neighbour's wife nor God's man servant nor God's maid servant nor God's ox nor God's ass nor any thing |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot wife=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | present | any thing |  |  |  |  | 's thy neighbour | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
לֹ֥א תַחְמֹ֖ד בֵּ֣ית רֵעֶ֑ךָ לֹֽא־תַחְמֹ֞ד אֵ֣שֶׁת רֵעֶ֗ךָ וְעַבְדּ֤וֹ וַאֲמָתוֹ֙ וְשׁוֹר֣וֹ וַחֲמֹר֔וֹ וְכֹ֖ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר לְרֵעֶֽךָ׃פ

[Exodus 20:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.20.17/)

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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:570` 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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