---
title: Genesis 38:29 (JPS 1917) — And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold his brot… · tree and pragmatics
description: And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold his brother came out; and she said: 'Wherefore hast thou made a breach for thyself?' Therefore his name was called Perez. Who acts: child, midwife, brother, harlot. Genesis 38:29 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1246/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Torah](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/) / [Genesis](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN/) / [chapter 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN/38/) / [38:29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.38.29/) / JPS 1

# Genesis 38:29 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold his brother came out; and she said: 'Wherefore hast thou made a breach for thyself?' Therefore his name was called Perez.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** child, midwife, brother, harlot, thou · **What happens:** come, pass, draw back, come out, say, make · **To what, where:** hand, breach, name · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Genesis 38:29 · 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 (child, midwife, brother, harlot), 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:1246
# text = And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold his brother came out; and she said: 'Wherefore hast thou made a breach for thyself?' Therefore his name was called Perez.
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	_	5	mark	_	_
5	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
10	back	back	ADV	RB	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	19	discourse	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
20	out	out	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
25	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
26	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	30	punct	_	_
27	Wherefore	wherefore	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	30	advmod	_	_
28	hast	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	30	nsubj	_	_
30	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	ccomp	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	breach	breach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	thyself	thyself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes|Style=Arch	30	obl	_	_
35	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	30	punct	_	_
36	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	30	punct	_	_
37	Therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
38	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj:pass	_	_
40	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	aux:pass	_	_
41	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
42	Perez	Perez	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	41	xcomp	_	_
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | child |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pass** | to-infinitive | child *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **draw back** | past | midwife | midwife's hand |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Theme |
| 4 | **come out** | past | midwife's brother |  |  |  |  | out *property* | vn become-109.1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | harlot |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **make** | present · perfect | thou | a breach |  |  |  | for thyself; wherefore *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP P.asset»: agent=Agent breach=Product for thyself=Asset |
| 7 | **call** | past · passive |  | midwife's name |  |  |  | therefore *property* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 8 | **name** |  | midwife |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication 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 -->
וַיְהִ֣י ׀ כְּמֵשִׁ֣יב יָד֗וֹ וְהִנֵּה֙ יָצָ֣א אָחִ֔יו וַתֹּ֕אמֶר מַה־פָּרַ֖צְתָּ עָלֶ֣יךָ פָּ֑רֶץ וַיִּקְרָ֥א שְׁמ֖וֹ פָּֽרֶץ׃

[Genesis 38:29: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.38.29/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:GEN:1246` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Genesis 38:28 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1245/)
- next →: [Genesis 38:30 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1247/)
- ↑ back to [Genesis 38:29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.38.29/)