---
title: Exodus 4:8 (JPS 1917) — And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither he… · tree and pragmatics
description: And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. Who acts: fathers. Exodus 4:8 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.86/)

<!-- 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 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO/4/) / [4:8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.4.8/) / JPS 1

# Exodus 4:8 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fathers · **What happens:** come, pass, not believe, hearken, believe · **To what, where:** hand, thee, voice

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Exodus 4:8 · 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 (fathers), 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:86
# text = And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	expl	_	_
3	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
13	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	12	obj	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	16	cc:preconj	_	_
16	hearken	hearken	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	23	amod	_	_
23	sign	sign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	latter	latter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	sign	sign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | shall |  | hand |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pass** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **believe** *a condition, not said to happen* | future | fathers *= father* | thee |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thou=Stimulus |
| 4 | **hearken** | infinitive | fathers *= father* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the voice of the first sign | tree rules |
| 5 | **believe** | future | fathers *= father* | the voice of the latter sign |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer voice=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 -->
וְהָיָה֙ אִם־לֹ֣א יַאֲמִ֣ינוּ לָ֔ךְ וְלֹ֣א יִשְׁמְע֔וּ לְקֹ֖ל הָאֹ֣ת הָרִאשׁ֑וֹן וְהֶֽאֱמִ֔ינוּ לְקֹ֖ל הָאֹ֥ת הָאַחֲרֽוֹן׃

[Exodus 4:8: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.4.8/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:EXO:86` 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 4:7 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.85/)
- next →: [Exodus 4:9 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.87/)
- ↑ back to [Exodus 4:8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.4.8/)