---
title: Genesis 21:20 (JPS 1917) — And God was with the lad, and he grew; and he dwelt in the wildernes… · tree and pragmatics
description: And God was with the lad, and he grew; and he dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. Who acts: God. Genesis 21:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 21:20 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And God was with the lad, and he grew; and he dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** God · **What happens:** be, grow, dwell, become · **To what, where:** wilderness, archer

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This is Genesis 21:20 · 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), 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:561
# text = And God was with the lad, and he grew; and he dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	lad	lad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	dwelt	dwell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	wilderness	wilderness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
21	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	archer	archer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	xcomp	_	_
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 | **is** | past | God |  |  |  |  | with the lad | tree rules |
| 2 | **grow** | past | God |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **dwell** | past | God |  |  | the wilderness |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in wilderness=Location |
| 4 | **become** | past | God *not said here* | a archer |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=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 -->
וַיְהִ֧י אֱלֹהִ֛ים אֶת־הַנַּ֖עַר וַיִּגְדָּ֑ל וַיֵּ֙שֶׁב֙ בַּמִּדְבָּ֔ר וַיְהִ֖י רֹבֶ֥ה קַשָּֽׁת׃

[Genesis 21:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.21.20/)

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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:561` 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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