---
title: Exodus 32:16 (JPS 1917) — And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. Who acts: tables, writing. Exodus 32:16 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.961/)

<!-- 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 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO/32/) / [32:16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.32.16/) / JPS 1

# Exodus 32:16 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tables, writing · **What happens:** be, grave · **To what, where:** work, writing

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Exodus 32:16 · 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 (tables, writing), 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:961
# text = And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	tables	table	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	writing	writing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	writing	writing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	graven	grave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	acl	_	_
20	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	tables	table	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the tables | the work and the writing |  |  |  | of God | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | past | the writing | the writing |  |  |  | of God | tree rules |
| 3 | **grave** | participle |  | the writing *not said here* |  |  |  | upon the tables | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
וְהַ֨לֻּחֹ֔ת מַעֲשֵׂ֥ה אֱלֹהִ֖ים הֵ֑מָּה וְהַמִּכְתָּ֗ב מִכְתַּ֤ב אֱלֹהִים֙ ה֔וּא חָר֖וּת עַל־הַלֻּחֹֽת׃

[Exodus 32:16: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.32.16/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:EXO:961` 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 32:15 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.960/)
- next →: [Exodus 32:17 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.962/)
- ↑ back to [Exodus 32:16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.32.16/)

