---
title: Genesis 35:17 (JPS 1917) — And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the mid-wife… · tree and pragmatics
description: And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the mid-wife said unto her: 'Fear not; for this also is a son for thee.' Who acts: way, Rachel, mid-wife, this. Genesis 35:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 35:17 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the mid-wife said unto her: 'Fear not; for this also is a son for thee.'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** way, Rachel, mid-wife, this · **What happens:** come, pass, be, say, not fear · **To what, where:** hard labour, son · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Genesis 35:17 · 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 (way, Rachel, mid-wife, this), 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:1105
# text = And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the mid-wife said unto her: 'Fear not; for this also is a son for thee.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	3	mark	_	_
5	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	12	mark	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	labour	labour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	advcl	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	mid-wife	mid-wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
18	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
20	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
21	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	_
22	Fear	fear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
25	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
26	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	30	nsubj	_	_
27	also	also	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
28	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	advcl	_	_
31	for	for	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	30	nmod	_	_
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
34	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=decl, act=narrate, indirect=0, polarity=none, voice=narrator

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | way |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pass** | infinitive | way *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | Rachel |  |  | hard labour |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the mid-wife |  |  |  |  | unto Rachel | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **not** **fear** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **is a** | present | this | a son |  |  |  | for thee | 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 -->
וַיְהִ֥י בְהַקְשֹׁתָ֖הּ בְּלִדְתָּ֑הּ וַתֹּ֨אמֶר לָ֤הּ הַמְיַלֶּ֙דֶת֙ אַל־תִּ֣ירְאִ֔י כִּֽי־גַם־זֶ֥ה לָ֖ךְ בֵּֽן׃

[Genesis 35:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.35.17/)

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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:1105` 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 35:16 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1104/)
- next →: [Genesis 35:18 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1106/)
- ↑ back to [Genesis 35:17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.35.17/)