---
title: Genesis 38:8 (JPS 1917) — And Judah said unto Onan: 'Go in unto thy brother's wife, and perfor… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Judah said unto Onan: 'Go in unto thy brother's wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her, and raise up seed to thy brother.' Who acts: Judah. Genesis 38:8 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 38:8 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And Judah said unto Onan: 'Go in unto thy brother's wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her, and raise up seed to thy brother.'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Judah · **What happens:** say, go in, perform, raise up · **To what, where:** duty, seed, brother · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 38:8 · 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 (Judah), 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:1224
# text = And Judah said unto Onan: 'Go in unto thy brother's wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her, and raise up seed to thy brother.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Judah	Judah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Onan	Onan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	_
8	Go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
9	in	in	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	's	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	perform	perform	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	duty	duty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	's	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
25	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	raise	raise	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
30	up	up	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	seed	seed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
36	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: request
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Judah |  |  |  |  | unto Onan | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **go in** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | unto thy brother's wife | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **perform** | infinitive |  | the duty of a husband's brother |  |  |  | unto wife | vn performance-26.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent duty=Theme |
| 4 | **raise up** | infinitive |  | seed | thy brother |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent seed=Theme to brother=Destination |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוּדָה֙ לְאוֹנָ֔ן בֹּ֛א אֶל־אֵ֥שֶׁת אָחִ֖יךָ וְיַבֵּ֣ם אֹתָ֑הּ וְהָקֵ֥ם זֶ֖רַע לְאָחִֽיךָ׃

[Genesis 38:8: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.38.8/)

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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:1224` 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 38:7 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1223/)
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- ↑ back to [Genesis 38:8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.38.8/)