---
title: Genesis 9:23 (JPS 1917) — And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their sho… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. Who acts: Shem, faces. Genesis 9:23 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Genesis 9:23 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Shem, faces · **What happens:** take, lay, go, cover, be, not see · **To what, where:** garment, shoulders, nakedness

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Genesis 9:23 · 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 (Shem, faces), 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:240
# text = And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	Shem	Shem	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	Japheth	Japheth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
5	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	garment	garment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	both	both	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	15	det:predet	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	shoulders	shoulder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
19	backward	backward	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	covered	cover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	nakedness	nakedness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
28	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	33	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	faces	face	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	_
32	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	backward	backward	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
36	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
38	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	37	advmod	_	_
39	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nmod:poss	_	_
41	's	's	PART	POS	_	40	case	_	_
42	nakedness	nakedness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	_
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | Shem and Japheth | a garment |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent garment=Theme |
| 2 | **lay** | past | Shem and Japheth *not said here* | garment |  | Shem's shoulders |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme upon shoulder=Destination |
| 3 | **go** | past | Shem and Japheth *not said here* |  |  |  |  | backward *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **cover** | past | Shem and Japheth *not said here* | the nakedness of Shem's father |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme nakedness=Destination |
| 5 | **is** | past | Shem's faces |  |  |  |  | backward *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **see** | past | faces *= face* | Shem's father's nakedness |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nakedness=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיִּקַּח֩ שֵׁ֨ם וָיֶ֜פֶת אֶת־הַשִּׂמְלָ֗ה וַיָּשִׂ֙ימוּ֙ עַל־שְׁכֶ֣ם שְׁנֵיהֶ֔ם וַיֵּֽלְכוּ֙ אֲחֹ֣רַנִּ֔ית וַיְכַסּ֕וּ אֵ֖ת עֶרְוַ֣ת אֲבִיהֶ֑ם וּפְנֵיהֶם֙ אֲחֹ֣רַנִּ֔ית וְעֶרְוַ֥ת אֲבִיהֶ֖ם לֹ֥א רָאֽוּ׃

[Genesis 9:23: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.9.23/)

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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:240` 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 9:22 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.239/)
- next →: [Genesis 9:24 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.241/)
- ↑ back to [Genesis 9:23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.9.23/)