---
title: Genesis 16:6 (JPS 1917) — But Abram said unto Sarai: 'Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to h… · tree and pragmatics
description: But Abram said unto Sarai: 'Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her that which is good in thine eyes.' And Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her face. Who acts: Abram, maid, Sarai. Genesis 16:6 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 16:6 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But Abram said unto Sarai: 'Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her that which is good in thine eyes.' And Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her face.

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**Who acts:** Abram, maid, Sarai · **What happens:** say, be, do, deal, flee · **To what, where:** hand, that, Abram, eyes, face · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 16:6 · 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 (Abram, maid, Sarai), 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:403
# text = But Abram said unto Sarai: 'Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her that which is good in thine eyes.' And Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her face.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Abram	Abram	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Sarai	Sarai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	_
8	Behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	15	discourse	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	maid	maid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
17	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	obj	_	_
21	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	acl:relcl	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	thine	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	_
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
28	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
29	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	Sarai	Sarai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	dealt	deal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
32	harshly	harshly	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
33	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	_
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
37	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	fled	flee	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
39	from	from	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
41	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Abram |  |  |  |  | unto Sarai | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | thy maid |  |  | thy hand |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** | infinitive |  | that | Abram |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |
| 4 | **is** | present |  |  |  | thine eyes |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **deal** | past | Sarai |  |  |  |  | with Abram; harshly *property* | vn cope-83 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with she=Theme |
| 6 | **flee** | past | Abram |  |  | Abram's face |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from face=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֹּ֨אמֶר אַבְרָ֜ם אֶל־שָׂרַ֗י הִנֵּ֤ה שִׁפְחָתֵךְ֙ בְּיָדֵ֔ךְ עֲשִׂי־לָ֖הּ הַטּ֣וֹב בְּעֵינָ֑יִךְ וַתְּעַנֶּ֣הָ שָׂרַ֔י וַתִּבְרַ֖ח מִפָּנֶֽיהָ׃

[Genesis 16:6: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.16.6/)

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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:403` 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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