---
title: Genesis 23:10 (JPS 1917) — Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth; and Eph… · tree and pragmatics
description: Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying: Who acts: Ephron, children. Genesis 23:10 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# Genesis 23:10 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Ephron, children · **What happens:** sit, answer, go in, say, hear · **To what, where:** midst, Abraham, hearing, gate · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Genesis 23:10 · 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 (Ephron, children), 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:610
# text = Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying:
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	Ephron	Ephron	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Heth	Heth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	Ephron	Ephron	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Hittite	Hittite	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	appos	_	_
18	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
19	Abraham	Abraham	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	hearing	hearing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	Heth	Heth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	even	even	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	all	all	PRON	DT	PronType=Tot	25	nmod	_	_
32	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	33	nsubj	_	_
33	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	acl:relcl	_	_
34	in	in	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
35	at	at	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	_
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
42	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
43	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | Ephron |  |  | the midst of the children of Heth | now |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in midst=Location |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Ephron |  | Abraham | the hearing of the children of Heth of all |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent abraham=Eventuality |
| 3 | **go in** | past |  |  |  | the gate of Abraham's city |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at gate=Location |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | Ephron *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **hear** |  | the children of Heth of all |  |  |  |  |  | nom hearing «act intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
וְעֶפְר֥וֹן יֹשֵׁ֖ב בְּת֣וֹךְ בְּנֵי־חֵ֑ת וַיַּעַן֩ עֶפְר֨וֹן הַחִתִּ֤י אֶת־אַבְרָהָם֙ בְּאָזְנֵ֣י בְנֵי־חֵ֔ת לְכֹ֛ל בָּאֵ֥י שַֽׁעַר־עִיר֖וֹ לֵאמֹֽר׃

[Genesis 23:10: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.23.10/)

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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:610` 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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