---
title: Exodus 32:23 (JPS 1917) — So they said unto me: Make us a god, which shall go before us; for a… · tree and pragmatics
description: So they said unto me: Make us a god, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him. Who acts: people, god, man, we. Exodus 32:23 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Exodus 32:23 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So they said unto me: Make us a god, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, god, man, we · **What happens:** say, make, go, bring up, not know, become · **To what, where:** god, us, land · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Exodus 32:23 · 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 (people, god, man, we), 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:968
# text = So they said unto me: Make us a god, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
7	Make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
8	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	iobj	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	god	god	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
13	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl:relcl	_	_
15	before	before	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	_
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	as	as	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	fixed	_	_
21	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
22	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	appos	_	_
26	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
27	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	acl:relcl	_	_
28	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	up	up	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	_
30	out	out	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	_
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
37	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
39	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	38	advmod	_	_
40	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	42	nsubj	_	_
41	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	42	aux:pass	_	_
42	become	become	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	38	ccomp	_	_
43	of	of	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	obl	_	_
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	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 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | people |  |  |  |  | unto me | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **make** | infinitive |  | a god | us |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset we=Beneficiary god=Product |
| 3 | **go** | shall | a god |  |  |  | before us |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme before we=Location |
| 4 | **bring up** | past | the man | us |  | the land of Egypt |  |  | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent we=Patient |
| 5 | **not** **know** | present | we |  |  |  |  | for this Moses | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **become** | present · passive |  |  |  |  |  | of Moses | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Result |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֹּ֣אמְרוּ לִ֔י עֲשֵׂה־לָ֣נוּ אֱלֹהִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר יֵלְכ֖וּ לְפָנֵ֑ינוּ כִּי־זֶ֣ה ׀ מֹשֶׁ֣ה הָאִ֗ישׁ אֲשֶׁ֤ר הֶֽעֱלָ֙נוּ֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם לֹ֥א יָדַ֖עְנוּ מֶה־הָ֥יָה לֽוֹ׃

[Exodus 32:23: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.32.23/)

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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:968` 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 32:22 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/EXO.967/)
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- ↑ back to [Exodus 32:23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.32.23/)