---
title: Genesis 32:18 (JPS 1917) — And he commanded the foremost, saying: 'When Esau my brother meeteth… · tree and pragmatics
description: And he commanded the foremost, saying: 'When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying: Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee? Who acts: sand, Esau, thou, these. Genesis 32:18 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 32:18 · JPS 1917

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And he commanded the foremost, saying: 'When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying: Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?

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**Who acts:** sand, Esau, thou, these · **What happens:** command, say, meet, ask, be, go · **To what, where:** foremost, thee · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 32:18 · 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 (sand, Esau, thou, these), 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:GEN:1017
# text = And he commanded the foremost, saying: 'When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying: Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	commanded	command	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	foremost	foremost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
9	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	_
10	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	14	mark	_	_
11	Esau	Esau	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	appos	_	_
14	meeteth	meet	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
15	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	14	obj	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	asketh	ask	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
19	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	18	obj	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
22	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
23	Whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Int	21	ccomp	_	_
24	art	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
25	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	23	nsubj	_	_
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	whither	whither	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	29	advmod	_	_
29	goest	go	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
30	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	29	nsubj	_	_
31	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Int	23	conj	_	_
34	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
35	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	33	nsubj	_	_
36	before	before	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	35	nmod	_	_
38	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	33	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **command** | past | sand | the foremost |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: agent=Agent foremost=Eventuality |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | sand *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **meet** | present | Esau | thee |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thou=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | present | Esau *not said here* | thee |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent thou=Recipient |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | Esau *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is a** | present | thou |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **go** | present | thou |  |  |  |  | whither *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **is a** | present | these |  |  |  |  |  | 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 -->
וַיְצַ֥ו אֶת־הָרִאשׁ֖וֹן לֵאמֹ֑ר כִּ֣י יִֽפְגָּשְׁךָ֞עֵשָׂ֣ו אָחִ֗י וִשְׁאֵֽלְךָ֙לֵאמֹ֔ר לְמִי־אַ֙תָּה֙ וְאָ֣נָה תֵלֵ֔ךְ וּלְמִ֖י אֵ֥לֶּה לְפָנֶֽיךָ׃

[Genesis 32:18: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.32.18/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:GEN:1017` 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: [Genesis 32:17 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1016/)
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- ↑ back to [Genesis 32:18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.32.18/)