---
title: Genesis 4:7 (JPS 1917) — If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up? and if thou doest not… · tree and pragmatics
description: If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up? and if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door; and unto thee is its desire, but thou mayest rule over it.' Who acts: thou, sin, desire, countenance. Genesis 4:7 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 4:7 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up? and if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door; and unto thee is its desire, but thou mayest rule over it.'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** thou, sin, desire, countenance · **What happens:** do, not lift up, not do, couch, be, rule · **To what, where:** countenance, door

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Genesis 4:7 · 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 (thou, sin, desire, countenance), 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:95
# text = If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up? and if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door; and unto thee is its desire, but thou mayest rule over it.'
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	doest	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
4	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
6	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	lifted	lift	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
11	up	up	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	doest	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
18	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	sin	sin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	coucheth	couch	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	conj	_	_
29	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
30	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	desire	desire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
33	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
34	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
35	mayest	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
36	rule	rule	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	conj	_	_
37	over	over	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	obl	_	_
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
40	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: warn
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=warn

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | thou |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **lift up** | shall · passive |  | countenance |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | thou |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **couch** | present | sin |  |  | the door |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | present | countenance's desire |  |  |  |  | unto thee | tree rules |
| 6 | **rule** | may | thou |  |  | countenance |  |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **desire** |  | countenance |  |  |  |  |  | nom desire «feeling transitive»: poss=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 -->
הֲל֤וֹא אִם־תֵּיטִיב֙ שְׂאֵ֔ת וְאִם֙ לֹ֣א תֵיטִ֔יב לַפֶּ֖תַח חַטָּ֣את רֹבֵ֑ץ וְאֵלֶ֙יךָ֙ תְּשׁ֣וּקָת֔וֹ וְאַתָּ֖ה תִּמְשָׁל־בּֽוֹ׃

[Genesis 4:7: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.4.7/)

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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:95` 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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