---
title: Genesis 20:4 (JPS 1917) — Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said: 'Lord, wilt Thou s… · tree and pragmatics
description: Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said: 'Lord, wilt Thou slay even a righteous nation? Who acts: Abimelech, Thou. Genesis 20:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 20:4 · JPS 1917

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Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said: 'Lord, wilt Thou slay even a righteous nation?

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**Who acts:** Abimelech, Thou · **What happens:** not come, say, slay · **To what, where:** righteous nation · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 20:4 · 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 (Abimelech, Thou), 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:524
# text = Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said: 'Lord, wilt Thou slay even a righteous nation?
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	Abimelech	Abimelech	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	near	near	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
13	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	_
14	Lord	Lord	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	vocative	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	wilt	will	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	Thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	18	nsubj	_	_
18	slay	slay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
19	even	even	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	righteous	righteous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	nation	nation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
23	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- indirect: yes
- teacher: changed form=q

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **come** | past · perfect | Abimelech |  |  |  | now | near *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Abimelech |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **slay** | future | Thou | a righteous nation |  |  |  | Lord *vocative* | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nation=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}

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וַאֲבִימֶ֕לֶךְ לֹ֥א קָרַ֖ב אֵלֶ֑יהָ וַיֹּאמַ֕ר אֲדֹנָ֕י הֲג֥וֹי גַּם־צַדִּ֖יק תַּהֲרֹֽג׃

[Genesis 20:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.20.4/)

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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:524` 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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