---
title: Genesis 28:12 (JPS 1917) — And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top… · tree and pragmatics
description: And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. Who acts: Jacob, top, angels. Genesis 28:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 28:12 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Jacob, top, angels · **What happens:** dream, set up, reach, ascend, descend · **To what, where:** ladder, earth, top

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Genesis 28:12 · 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 (Jacob, top, angels), 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:837
# text = And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	dreamed	dream	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
6	behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	8	discourse	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	ladder	ladder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
9	set	set	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
10	up	up	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nmod	_	_
20	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	heaven	heaven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	27	discourse	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	angels	angel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
30	ascending	ascend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	acl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	descending	descend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	30	conj	_	_
33	on	on	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obl	_	_
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	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 | **dream** | past | Jacob |  |  |  |  |  | vn cognize-85 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **set up** | participle |  | a ladder *not said here* |  | the earth |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent on earth=Destination |
| 3 | **reach** | past | the top of earth |  |  |  |  | to heaven | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **ascend** | gerund | the angels of God *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **descend** | gerund | the angels of God *not said here* |  |  | top |  |  | vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
וַֽיַּחֲלֹ֗ם וְהִנֵּ֤ה סֻלָּם֙ מֻצָּ֣ב אַ֔רְצָה וְרֹאשׁ֖וֹ מַגִּ֣יעַ הַשָּׁמָ֑יְמָה וְהִנֵּה֙ מַלְאֲכֵ֣י אֱלֹהִ֔ים עֹלִ֥ים וְיֹרְדִ֖ים בּֽוֹ׃

[Genesis 28:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.28.12/)

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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:837` 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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