---
title: Genesis 1:6 (JPS 1917) — And God said: 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,… · tree and pragmatics
description: And God said: 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.' Who acts: God, firmament. Genesis 1:6 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 1:6 · JPS 1917

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And God said: 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.'

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**Who acts:** God, firmament · **What happens:** say, let, divide · **To what, where:** firmament, waters · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 1:6 · 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, firmament), 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:6
# text = And God said: 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
5	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	_
6	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
7	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	8	expl	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	firmament	firmament	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	divide	divide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
24	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
28	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: command
- act: suggest
- 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 | God |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **let** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **let** | infinitive |  | firmament |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **divide** | infinitive | firmament *not said here* | the waters |  |  |  | from the waters | vn separate-23.1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent water=Patient from water=Co-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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וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֔ים יְהִ֥י רָקִ֖יעַ בְּת֣וֹךְ הַמָּ֑יִם וִיהִ֣י מַבְדִּ֔יל בֵּ֥ין מַ֖יִם לָמָֽיִם׃

[Genesis 1:6: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.1.6/)

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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:6` 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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