---
title: Genesis 7:20 (JPS 1917) — Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were… · tree and pragmatics
description: Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. Who acts: waters. Genesis 7:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 7:20 · JPS 1917

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Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

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**Who acts:** waters · **What happens:** prevail, cover · **To what, where:** mountains

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This is Genesis 7:20 · 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 (waters), 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:191
# text = Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
1	Fifteen	fifteen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	cubits	cubit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	upward	upward	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
4	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	prevail	prevail	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	mountains	mountain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prevail** | past · do-support | the waters |  |  |  |  | upward *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **cover** | past · passive |  | the mountains |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Destination |

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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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חֲמֵ֨שׁ עֶשְׂרֵ֤ה אַמָּה֙ מִלְמַ֔עְלָה גָּבְר֖וּ הַמָּ֑יִם וַיְכֻסּ֖וּ הֶהָרִֽים׃

[Genesis 7:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.7.20/)

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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:191` 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 7:19 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.190/)
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