---
title: Genesis 21:4 (JPS 1917) — And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Who acts: Abraham, God. Genesis 21:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 21:4 · JPS 1917

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And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

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**Who acts:** Abraham, God · **What happens:** circumcise, be, command · **To what, where:** son, Abraham · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 21:4 · 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 (Abraham, God), 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:544
# text = And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Abraham	Abraham	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	circumcised	circumcise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	Isaac	Isaac	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	_
7	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	12	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	eight	eight	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl:unmarked	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	advcl	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	commanded	command	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **circumcise** | past | Abraham | Abraham's son |  |  |  |  | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past | Abraham |  |  |  | day | old *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **command** | past · perfect | God | Abraham |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

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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}

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וַיָּ֤מָל אַבְרָהָם֙ אֶת־יִצְחָ֣ק בְּנ֔וֹ בֶּן־שְׁמֹנַ֖ת יָמִ֑ים כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר צִוָּ֥ה אֹת֖וֹ אֱלֹהִֽים׃

[Genesis 21:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.21.4/)

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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:544` 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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