---
title: Genesis 20:18 (JPS 1917) — For the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimel… · tree and pragmatics
description: For the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham's wife. Who acts: LORD. Genesis 20:18 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 20:18 · JPS 1917

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For the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham's wife.

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**Who acts:** LORD · **What happens:** close up · **To what, where:** wombs

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This is Genesis 20:18 · 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 (LORD), 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:540
# text = For the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham's wife.
1	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
6	closed	close	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	up	up	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	10	det:predet	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	wombs	womb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	Abimelech	Abimelech	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	22	case	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	fixed	_	_
19	Sarah	Sarah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod:poss	_	_
20	Abraham	Abraham	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	flat	_	_
21	's	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
22	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	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 | **close up** | past · perfect | the LORD | all wombs of the house of Abimelech |  |  |  | because Sarah's wife; fast *property* | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent womb=Patient |

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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 -->
כִּֽי־עָצֹ֤ר עָצַר֙ יְהוָ֔ה בְּעַ֥ד כָּל־רֶ֖חֶם לְבֵ֣ית אֲבִימֶ֑לֶךְ עַל־דְּבַ֥ר שָׂרָ֖ה אֵ֥שֶׁת אַבְרָהָֽם׃ס

[Genesis 20:18: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.20.18/)

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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:540` 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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