---
title: Exodus 21:20 (JPS 1917) — And if a man smite his bondman, or his bondwoman, with a rod, and he… · tree and pragmatics
description: And if a man smite his bondman, or his bondwoman, with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall surely be punished. Who acts: man. Exodus 21:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 21:20 · JPS 1917

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And if a man smite his bondman, or his bondwoman, with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall surely be punished.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** smite, die, punish · **To what, where:** bondman, hand, man

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This is Exodus 21:20 · 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 (man), 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:599
# text = And if a man smite his bondman, or his bondwoman, with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall surely be punished.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
2	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	smite	smite	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	bondman	bondman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	bondwoman	bondwoman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	rod	rod	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	die	die	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
20	under	under	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
26	surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	punished	punish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: neg
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **smite** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | a man | man's bondman or man's bondwoman |  |  |  | with a rod | vn hit-18.1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent bondman=Patient with rod=Instrument |
| 2 | **die** | present | man |  |  | man's hand |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **punish** | shall · passive |  | man |  |  |  | surely *property* | vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

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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 -->
וְכִֽי־יַכֶּה֩ אִ֨ישׁ אֶת־עַבְדּ֜וֹ א֤וֹ אֶת־אֲמָתוֹ֙ בַּשֵּׁ֔בֶט וּמֵ֖ת תַּ֣חַת יָד֑וֹ נָקֹ֖ם יִנָּקֵֽם׃

[Exodus 21:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.21.20/)

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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:599` 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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- ↑ back to [Exodus 21:20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.21.20/)