---
title: Exodus 23:24 (JPS 1917) — Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after… · tree and pragmatics
description: Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their doings; but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and break in pieces their pillars. Who acts: Thou. Exodus 23:24 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 23:24 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their doings; but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and break in pieces their pillars.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Thou · **What happens:** not bow down, serve, do, overthrow, break · **To what, where:** Canaanite, pillars, pieces

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Exodus 23:24 · 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:673
# text = Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their doings; but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and break in pieces their pillars.
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	bow	bow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	down	down	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	gods	god	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	11	cc	_	_
11	serve	serve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	15	cc	_	_
15	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
16	after	after	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	doings	doing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	24	nsubj	_	_
22	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	utterly	utterly	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	overthrow	overthrow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
25	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
31	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	pillars	pillar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **bow down** | shall | Thou |  |  |  |  | to Canaanite's gods; down *property* | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.pivot»: agent=Agent to god=Pivot |
| 2 | **serve** | infinitive | Thou *not said here* | Canaanite |  |  |  |  | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Attribute |
| 3 | **do** | infinitive | Thou *not said here* |  |  |  | after Canaanite's doings |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **overthrow** | shall | thou | Canaanite |  |  |  | utterly *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **break** | infinitive | thou *not said here* | Canaanite's pillars |  | pieces |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer pillar=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 -->
לֹֽא־תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֤ה לֵאלֹֽהֵיהֶם֙ וְלֹ֣א תָֽעָבְדֵ֔ם וְלֹ֥א תַעֲשֶׂ֖ה כְּמַֽעֲשֵׂיהֶ֑ם כִּ֤י הָרֵס֙ תְּהָ֣רְסֵ֔ם וְשַׁבֵּ֥ר תְּשַׁבֵּ֖ר מַצֵּבֹתֵיהֶֽם׃

[Exodus 23:24: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.23.24/)

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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:673` 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 23:23 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.672/)
- next →: [Exodus 23:25 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.674/)
- ↑ back to [Exodus 23:24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.23.24/)