---
title: Exodus 3:11 (JPS 1917) — And Moses said unto God: 'Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, a… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Moses said unto God: 'Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?' Who acts: Moses, I. Exodus 3:11 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 3:11 · JPS 1917

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And Moses said unto God: 'Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?'

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**Who acts:** Moses, I · **What happens:** say, be, go, bring · **To what, where:** children, Egypt · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Exodus 3:11 · 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 (Moses, I), 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:63
# text = And Moses said unto God: 'Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	_
8	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	ccomp	_	_
9	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
16	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	Pharaoh	Pharaoh	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
24	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
29	out	out	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
32	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
33	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- indirect: yes
- teacher: changed form=q, act=ask, indirect=1

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Moses |  |  |  |  | unto God | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **go** | should | I |  |  |  |  | unto Pharaoh | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **bring** | should | I | the children of Israel |  | Egypt |  | forth *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent child=Theme out egypt=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר מֹשֶׁה֙ אֶל־הָ֣אֱלֹהִ֔ים מִ֣י אָנֹ֔כִי כִּ֥י אֵלֵ֖ךְ אֶל־פַּרְעֹ֑ה וְכִ֥י אוֹצִ֛יא אֶת־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מִמִּצְרָֽיִם׃

[Exodus 3:11: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.3.11/)

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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:63` 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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- ← previous: [Exodus 3:10 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.62/)
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