---
title: Genesis 31:24 (JPS 1917) — And God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night, and said… · tree and pragmatics
description: And God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night, and said unto him: 'Take heed to thyself that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.' Who acts: God, thou. Genesis 31:24 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 31:24 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night, and said unto him: 'Take heed to thyself that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** God, thou · **What happens:** come, say, take, not speak, dream · **To what, where:** Laban, dream, heed, good, Jacob, night · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 31:24 · 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, thou), 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:960
# text = And God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night, and said unto him: 'Take heed to thyself that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Laban	Laban	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Aramean	Aramean	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	dream	dream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
19	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
20	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	_
21	Take	take	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
22	heed	heed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	thyself	thyself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes|Style=Arch	21	obl	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	27	nsubj	_	_
27	speak	speak	VERB	VBP	Mood=Sub|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	ccomp	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	Jacob	Jacob	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
31	either	either	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc:preconj	_	_
32	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	obj	_	_
33	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	conj	_	_
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
36	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: request
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | God |  | Laban | a dream of the night |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to laban=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | God *not said here* |  |  |  |  | unto Laban | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **take** | infinitive |  | heed |  |  |  | to thyself | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent heed=Theme to thyself=be' clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **not** **speak** *speech: other* | present | thou | good | Jacob |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **dream** |  |  | the night |  |  |  |  | nom dream «cognition transitive»: of=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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
וַיָּבֹ֧א אֱלֹהִ֛ים אֶל־לָבָ֥ן הָאֲרַמִּ֖י בַּחֲלֹ֣ם הַלָּ֑יְלָה וַיֹּ֣אמֶר ל֗וֹ הִשָּׁ֧מֶר לְךָ֛ פֶּן־תְּדַבֵּ֥ר עִֽם־יַעֲקֹ֖ב מִטּ֥וֹב עַד־רָֽע׃

[Genesis 31:24: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.31.24/)

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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:960` 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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