---
title: Exodus 23:2 (JPS 1917) — Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou bea… · tree and pragmatics
description: Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou bear witness in a cause to turn aside after a multitude to pervert justice; Who acts: Thou. Exodus 23:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 23:2 · JPS 1917

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Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou bear witness in a cause to turn aside after a multitude to pervert justice;

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**Who acts:** Thou · **What happens:** not follow, do, bear, turn, pervert · **To what, where:** multitude, evil, witness, cause, justice

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This is Exodus 23:2 · 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), 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:649
# text = Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou bear witness in a cause to turn aside after a multitude to pervert justice;
1	Thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	nsubj	_	_
2	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	multitude	multitude	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
9	evil	evil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
11	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	14	cc	_	_
12	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	14	nsubj	_	_
14	bear	bear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
15	witness	witness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	acl	_	_
21	aside	aside	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	after	after	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	multitude	multitude	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	pervert	pervert	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl	_	_
27	justice	justice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
28	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: request
- voice: narrator
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed act=request

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **follow** | shall | Thou | a multitude |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent multitude=Theme |
| 2 | **do** | to-infinitive | Thou *not said here* | evil |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent evil=Eventuality |
| 3 | **bear** | shall | thou | witness |  | a cause |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent witness=Patient |
| 4 | **turn** | to-infinitive | thou *not said here* |  |  |  | after a multitude | aside *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **pervert** | to-infinitive | thou *not said here* | justice |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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}

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לֹֽא־תִהְיֶ֥ה אַחֲרֵֽי־רַבִּ֖ים לְרָעֹ֑ת וְלֹא־תַעֲנֶ֣ה עַל־רִ֗ב לִנְטֹ֛ת אַחֲרֵ֥י רַבִּ֖ים לְהַטֹּֽת׃

[Exodus 23:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.23.2/)

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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:649` 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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