---
title: Genesis 12:12 (JPS 1917) — And it will come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that th… · tree and pragmatics
description: And it will come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they will say: This is his wife; and they will kill me, but thee they will keep alive. Who acts: famine, Egyptians, This. Genesis 12:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 12:12 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And it will come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they will say: This is his wife; and they will kill me, but thee they will keep alive.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** famine, Egyptians, This · **What happens:** come, pass, see, say, be, kill · **To what, where:** thee, wife, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 12:12 · 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 (famine, Egyptians, This), 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:325
# text = And it will come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they will say: This is his wife; and they will kill me, but thee they will keep alive.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	12	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Egyptians	Egyptian	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
11	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
13	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	12	obj	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
19	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
20	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	ccomp	_	_
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
29	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
31	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
32	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	35	obj	_	_
33	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	conj	_	_
36	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	xcomp	_	_
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: promise
- voice: character
- polarity: pos
- teacher: changed voice=character

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | future | famine |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pass** | to-infinitive | famine *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | shall | the Egyptians | thee |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thou=Stimulus |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | future | Egyptians *= egyptian* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | present | This | Abram's wife |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **kill** | future | Egyptians *= egyptian* | me |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 7 | **keep** | future | Egyptians *= egyptian* | thee |  |  |  | alive *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thou=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
וְהָיָ֗ה כִּֽי־יִרְא֤וּ אֹתָךְ֙ הַמִּצְרִ֔ים וְאָמְר֖וּ אִשְׁתּ֣וֹ זֹ֑את וְהָרְג֥וּ אֹתִ֖י וְאֹתָ֥ךְ יְחַיּֽוּ׃

[Genesis 12:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.12.12/)

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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:325` 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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