---
title: Genesis 37:18 (JPS 1917) — And they saw him afar off, and before he came near unto them, they c… · tree and pragmatics
description: And they saw him afar off, and before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. Who acts: brethren, man. Genesis 37:18 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 37:18 · JPS 1917

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And they saw him afar off, and before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.

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**Who acts:** brethren, man · **What happens:** see, come, conspire, slay · **To what, where:** man

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This is Genesis 37:18 · 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 (brethren, man), 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:1196
# text = And they saw him afar off, and before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	afar	afar	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	off	off	ADV	RP	_	3	advmod	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
9	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
12	near	near	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	conspired	conspire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	against	against	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	slay	slay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | brethren | man |  |  |  | off *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 2 | **come** | past | man |  |  |  |  | unto brethren; near *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **conspire** | past | brethren |  |  |  |  | against man | vn conspire-71 «NP V PP.maleficiary»: agent=Agent against he=Maleficiary |
| 4 | **slay** | to-infinitive | brethren *not said here* | man |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |

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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}

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וַיִּרְא֥וּ אֹת֖וֹ מֵרָחֹ֑ק וּבְטֶ֙רֶם֙ יִקְרַ֣ב אֲלֵיהֶ֔ם וַיִּֽתְנַכְּל֥וּ אֹת֖וֹ לַהֲמִיתֽוֹ׃

[Genesis 37:18: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.37.18/)

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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:1196` 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 37:17 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1195/)
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- ↑ back to [Genesis 37:18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.37.18/)