---
title: Genesis 21:29 (JPS 1917) — And Abimelech said unto Abraham: 'What mean these seven ewe-lambs wh… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Abimelech said unto Abraham: 'What mean these seven ewe-lambs which thou hast set by themselves?' Who acts: Abimelech, seven ewe lambs, thou. Genesis 21:29 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 21:29 · JPS 1917

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And Abimelech said unto Abraham: 'What mean these seven ewe-lambs which thou hast set by themselves?'

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**Who acts:** Abimelech, seven ewe lambs, thou · **What happens:** say, mean, set · **To what, where:** seven ewe lambs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 21:29 · 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, seven ewe lambs, 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:570
# text = And Abimelech said unto Abraham: 'What mean these seven ewe-lambs which thou hast set by themselves?'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Abimelech	Abimelech	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Abraham	Abraham	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	_
8	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	obj	_	_
9	mean	mean	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
10	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	14	det	_	_
11	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
12	ewe	ewe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	_
14	lambs	lamb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	obj	_	_
16	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	18	nsubj	_	_
17	hast	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	set	set	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	acl:relcl	_	_
19	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	18	obl	_	_
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
22	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Abimelech |  |  |  |  | unto Abraham | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **mean** | present | this seven ewe lambs |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
| 3 | **set** | present · perfect | thou | this seven ewe lambs |  |  |  | by Abimelech | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent which=Theme by themselves=Destination |

<!-- .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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וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֲבִימֶ֖לֶךְ אֶל־אַבְרָהָ֑ם מָ֣ה הֵ֗נָּה שֶׁ֤בַע כְּבָשֹׂת֙ הָאֵ֔לֶּה אֲשֶׁ֥ר הִצַּ֖בְתָּ לְבַדָּֽנָה׃

[Genesis 21:29: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.21.29/)

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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:570` 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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