---
title: Exodus 21:37 (JPS 1917) — If a man steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it, he shall… · tree and pragmatics
description: If a man steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it, he shall pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. Who acts: man. Exodus 21:37 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.616/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Torah](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/) / [Exodus](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO/) / [chapter 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO/21/) / [21:37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.21.37/) / JPS 1

# Exodus 21:37 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If a man steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it, he shall pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** steal, kill, sell, pay · **To what, where:** ox, five oxen

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Exodus 21:37 · 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:616
# text = If a man steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it, he shall pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	steal	steal	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	ox	ox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	sell	sell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	pay	pay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
23	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	nummod	_	_
24	oxen	ox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	ox	ox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
31	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	conj	_	_
32	for	for	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	_
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **steal** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | a man | a ox or a sheep |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location ox=Theme |
| 2 | **kill** | infinitive | a man *not said here* | ox |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **sell** | infinitive | a man *not said here* | ox |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **pay** | shall | man | five oxen and four sheep for a sheep |  |  |  | for a ox | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent ox=Asset for ox=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 -->
כִּ֤י יִגְנֹֽב־אִישׁ֙ שׁ֣וֹר אוֹ־שֶׂ֔ה וּטְבָח֖וֹ א֣וֹ מְכָר֑וֹ חֲמִשָּׁ֣ה בָקָ֗ר יְשַׁלֵּם֙ תַּ֣חַת הַשּׁ֔וֹר וְאַרְבַּע־צֹ֖אן תַּ֥חַת הַשֶּֽׂה׃

[Exodus 21:37: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.21.37/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:EXO:616` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Exodus 21:36 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.615/)
- next →: [Exodus 22:1 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.617/)
- ↑ back to [Exodus 21:37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.21.37/)