---
title: Genesis 39:9 (JPS 1917) — How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?' · tree and pragmatics
description: How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?' Who acts: I. Genesis 39:9 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 39:9 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2

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How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?'

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** do, sin · **To what, where:** great wickedness

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This is Genesis 39:9 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2 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 (I), 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:1259
# text = How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?'
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
7	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	wickedness	wickedness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	sin	sin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
12	against	against	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
15	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- 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 | **do** | can | I | this great wickedness |  |  | then |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wickedness=Eventuality |
| 2 | **sin** | infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | against God | vn rebel-71.2-1-1 «NP V PP.maleficiary»: agent=Agent against god=Maleficiary |

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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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אֵינֶ֨נּוּ גָד֜וֹל בַּבַּ֣יִת הַזֶּה֮ מִמֶּנִּי֒ וְלֹֽא־חָשַׂ֤ךְ מִמֶּ֙נִּי֙ מְא֔וּמָה כִּ֥י אִם־אוֹתָ֖ךְ בַּאֲשֶׁ֣ר אַתְּ־אִשְׁתּ֑וֹ וְאֵ֨יךְ אֶֽעֱשֶׂ֜ה הָרָעָ֤ה הַגְּדֹלָה֙ הַזֹּ֔את וְחָטָ֖אתִי לֵֽאלֹהִֽים׃

[Genesis 39:9: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.39.9/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. [he is not greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1258/)
2. **How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?'**

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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:1259` 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 39:9 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1258/)
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- ↑ back to [Genesis 39:9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.39.9/)