---
title: Genesis 37:20 (JPS 1917) — Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into one of th… · tree and pragmatics
description: Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say: An evil beast hath devoured him; and we shall see what will become of his dreams.' Who acts: you, us, we, evil beast. Genesis 37:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 37:20 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say: An evil beast hath devoured him; and we shall see what will become of his dreams.'

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**Who acts:** you, us, we, evil beast, dreamer · **What happens:** come, let, slay, cast, say, devour · **To what, where:** us, dreamer · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 37:20 · 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 (you, us, we, evil beast), 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:1198
# text = Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say: An evil beast hath devoured him; and we shall see what will become of his dreams.'
1	Come	come	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	1	advmod	_	_
3	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	_
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
7	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	slay	slay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	cast	cast	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	into	into	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	pits	pit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	conj	_	_
24	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
25	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
28	hath	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	devoured	devour	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	ccomp	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
33	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	conj	_	_
36	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	38	nsubj	_	_
37	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
38	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	ccomp	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
41	dreams	dream	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obl	_	_
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
43	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: suggest
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed voice=character, act=suggest

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  | now | therefore *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **let** | infinitive | you *not said here* | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **slay** | infinitive | us *not said here* | dreamer |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 4 | **cast** | infinitive | us *not said here* | dreamer |  |  |  | into one of the pits | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP.material PP.product»: agent=Agent he=Material into one=Product |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | future | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **devour** | present · perfect | a evil beast | dreamer |  |  |  |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 7 | **see** | shall | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 8 | **become** | future |  |  |  |  |  | of dreamer's dreams | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 9 | **dream** |  | dreamer |  |  |  |  |  | nom dream «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
וְעַתָּ֣ה ׀ לְכ֣וּ וְנַֽהַרְגֵ֗הוּ וְנַשְׁלִכֵ֙הוּ֙ בְּאַחַ֣ד הַבֹּר֔וֹת וְאָמַ֕רְנוּ חַיָּ֥ה רָעָ֖ה אֲכָלָ֑תְהוּ וְנִרְאֶ֕ה מַה־יִּהְי֖וּ חֲלֹמֹתָֽיו׃

[Genesis 37:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.37.20/)

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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:1198` 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 37:19 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1197/)
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- ↑ back to [Genesis 37:20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.37.20/)