---
title: Exodus 21:16 (JPS 1917) — And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in hi… · tree and pragmatics
description: And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. Exodus 21:16 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 21:16 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.

<!-- .vintro -->
**What happens:** steal, sell, find, put · **To what, where:** man, hand

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This is Exodus 21:16 · 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: 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:595
# text = And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	dislocated	_	_
3	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	4	nsubj	_	_
4	stealeth	steal	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	selleth	sell	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
23	surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **steal** | present |  | a man |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location man=Theme |
| 2 | **sell** | present |  | man |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **find** *a condition, not said to happen* | infinitive · passive |  | man |  | man's hand |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |
| 4 | **put** | shall · passive |  | man |  |  |  | to death; man *dislocated*; surely *property* | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: subject=Goal |

<!-- .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 -->
וְגֹנֵ֨ב אִ֧ישׁ וּמְכָר֛וֹ וְנִמְצָ֥א בְיָד֖וֹ מ֥וֹת יוּמָֽת׃ס

[Exodus 21:16: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.21.16/)

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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:595` 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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