---
title: Genesis 37:21 (JPS 1917) — And Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand; and said:… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand; and said: 'Let us not take his life.' Who acts: Reuben, us. Genesis 37:21 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 37:21 · JPS 1917

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And Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand; and said: 'Let us not take his life.'

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**Who acts:** Reuben, us · **What happens:** hear, deliver, say, let, not take · **To what, where:** beast, Reuben, hand, us, life · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 37:21 · 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 (Reuben, us), 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:1199
# text = And Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand; and said: 'Let us not take his life.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Reuben	Reuben	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	delivered	deliver	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	out	out	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
17	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	_
18	Let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	_
19	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
25	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: command
- act: suggest
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | Reuben | beast |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |
| 2 | **deliver** | past | Reuben *not said here* | Reuben |  | brethren's hand |  |  | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent he=Theme out hand=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Reuben *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **let** | infinitive |  | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **take** | infinitive | us *not said here* | Reuben's life |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |

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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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וַיִּשְׁמַ֣ע רְאוּבֵ֔ן וַיַּצִּלֵ֖הוּ מִיָּדָ֑ם וַיֹּ֕אמֶר לֹ֥א נַכֶּ֖נּוּ נָֽפֶשׁ׃

[Genesis 37:21: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.37.21/)

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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:1199` 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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- ↑ back to [Genesis 37:21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.37.21/)