---
title: Exodus 21:2 (JPS 1917) — If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve; and in the s… · tree and pragmatics
description: If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. Who acts: thou, Hebrew. Exodus 21:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 21:2 · JPS 1917

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If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

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**Who acts:** thou, Hebrew · **What happens:** buy, serve, go out · **To what, where:** Hebrew servant, seventh

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This is Exodus 21:2 · 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, Hebrew), 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:581
# text = If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	3	nsubj	_	_
3	buy	buy	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	Hebrew	Hebrew	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	amod	_	_
6	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl:unmarked	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	serve	serve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	seventh	seventh	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumType=Ord	20	obl	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
21	out	out	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	free	free	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	xcomp	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	22	obl	_	_
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **buy** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | thou | a Hebrew servant |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent servant=Theme |
| 2 | **serve** | shall | Hebrew |  |  |  | year |  | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **go out** | shall | Hebrew |  |  | the seventh |  | free, out *property* | vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=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 -->
כִּ֤י תִקְנֶה֙ עֶ֣בֶד עִבְרִ֔י שֵׁ֥שׁ שָׁנִ֖ים יַעֲבֹ֑ד וּבַ֨שְּׁבִעִ֔ת יֵצֵ֥א לַֽחָפְשִׁ֖י חִנָּֽם׃

[Exodus 21:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.21.2/)

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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:581` 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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