---
title: Exodus 23:8 (JPS 1917) — And thou shalt take no gift; for a gift blindeth them that have sigh… · tree and pragmatics
description: And thou shalt take no gift; for a gift blindeth them that have sight, and perverteth the words of the righteous. Who acts: thou, gift, that. Exodus 23:8 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 23:8 · JPS 1917

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And thou shalt take no gift; for a gift blindeth them that have sight, and perverteth the words of the righteous.

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**Who acts:** thou, gift, that · **What happens:** take, blind, have, pervert, word · **To what, where:** gift, wicked, sight, words, righteous

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This is Exodus 23:8 · 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, gift, that), 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:655
# text = And thou shalt take no gift; for a gift blindeth them that have sight, and perverteth the words of the righteous.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	nsubj	_	_
3	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
6	gift	gift	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
8	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	gift	gift	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	blindeth	blind	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
14	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
15	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	perverteth	pervert	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	righteous	righteous	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	_
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: request
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=request, form=imp

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | shall | thou | no gift |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gift=Theme |
| 2 | **blind** | present | a gift | wicked |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | present | that | sight |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sight=Patient |
| 4 | **pervert** | present | a gift *not said here* | the words of the righteous |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **word** |  |  | the righteous |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 -->
וְשֹׁ֖חַד לֹ֣א תִקָּ֑ח כִּ֤י הַשֹּׁ֙חַד֙ יְעַוֵּ֣ר פִּקְחִ֔ים וִֽיסַלֵּ֖ף דִּבְרֵ֥י צַדִּיקִֽים׃

[Exodus 23:8: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.23.8/)

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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:655` 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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