---
title: Genesis 20:3 (JPS 1917) — But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him:… · tree and pragmatics
description: But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him: 'Behold, thou shalt die, because of the woman whom thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.' Who acts: God, thou, woman. Genesis 20:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 20:3 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him: 'Behold, thou shalt die, because of the woman whom thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** God, thou, woman · **What happens:** come, say, die, take, be, dream · **To what, where:** Abimelech, dream, God, woman, wife, night · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 20:3 · 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 (God, thou, woman), 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:523
# text = But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him: 'Behold, thou shalt die, because of the woman whom thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.'
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Abimelech	Abimelech	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	dream	dream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	_
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
18	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	_
19	Behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	23	discourse	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
21	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	23	nsubj	_	_
22	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	28	case	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	fixed	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
29	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	32	obj	_	_
30	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	32	nsubj	_	_
31	hast	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	28	acl:relcl	_	_
33	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	40	punct	_	_
34	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	40	mark	_	_
35	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
36	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	40	cop	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nmod:poss	_	_
39	's	's	PART	POS	_	38	case	_	_
40	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	advcl	_	_
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
42	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | God |  | Abimelech | a dream of the night |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to abimelech=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | God *not said here* |  | God |  |  |  | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to he=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 3 | **die** | shall | thou |  |  |  |  | because the woman | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **take** | present · perfect | thou |  | the woman |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument whom=Destination |
| 5 | **is a** | present | woman | a man's wife |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **dream** |  |  | the night |  |  |  |  | nom dream «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיָּבֹ֧א אֱלֹהִ֛ים אֶל־אֲבִימֶ֖לֶךְ בַּחֲל֣וֹם הַלָּ֑יְלָה וַיֹּ֣אמֶר ל֗וֹ הִנְּךָ֥ מֵת֙ עַל־הָאִשָּׁ֣ה אֲשֶׁר־לָקַ֔חְתָּ וְהִ֖וא בְּעֻ֥לַת בָּֽעַל׃

[Genesis 20:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.20.3/)

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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:523` 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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