---
title: Genesis 31:23 (JPS 1917) — And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days'… · tree and pragmatics
description: And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey; and he overtook him in the mountain of Gilead. Who acts: Jacob, seven days. Genesis 31:23 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 31:23 · JPS 1917

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And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey; and he overtook him in the mountain of Gilead.

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**Who acts:** Jacob, seven days · **What happens:** take, pursue, overtake, journey · **To what, where:** brethren, journey, Laban, mountain

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This is Genesis 31:23 · 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, seven days), 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:959
# text = And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey; and he overtook him in the mountain of Gilead.
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	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	brethren	brethren	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	pursued	pursue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	after	after	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	_
13	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod:poss	_	_
15	'	'	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl:unmarked	_	_
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	overtook	overtake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	Gilead	Gilead	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | Jacob | Jacob's brethren |  |  |  | with Laban | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brethren=Theme |
| 2 | **pursue** | past | Jacob *not said here* | seven days's journey |  |  | after Jacob |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent after he=Theme |
| 3 | **overtake** | past | Jacob | Laban |  | the mountain of Gilead |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **journey** |  | seven days |  |  |  |  |  | nom journey «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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וַיִּקַּ֤ח אֶת־אֶחָיו֙ עִמּ֔וֹ וַיִּרְדֹּ֣ף אַחֲרָ֔יו דֶּ֖רֶךְ שִׁבְעַ֣ת יָמִ֑ים וַיַּדְבֵּ֥ק אֹת֖וֹ בְּהַ֥ר הַגִּלְעָֽד׃

[Genesis 31:23: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.31.23/)

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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:959` 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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- ← previous: [Genesis 31:22 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.958/)
- next →: [Genesis 31:24 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.960/)
- ↑ back to [Genesis 31:23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.31.23/)