---
title: Leviticus 18:23 (JPS 1917) — And thou shalt not lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; n… · tree and pragmatics
description: And thou shalt not lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a beast, to lie down thereto; it is perversion. Who acts: thou, woman, beast. Leviticus 18:23 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Leviticus 18:23 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And thou shalt not lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a beast, to lie down thereto; it is perversion.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** thou, woman, beast · **What happens:** not lie, defile, stand, lie down, be · **To what, where:** thyself, beast, perversion

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Leviticus 18:23 · 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 (thou, woman, beast), 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:LEV:534
# text = And thou shalt not lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a beast, to lie down thereto; it is perversion.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	5	nsubj	_	_
3	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	lie	lie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	8	det	_	_
8	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	defile	defile	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
11	thyself	thyself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes|Style=Arch	10	obj	_	_
12	therewith	therewith	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
14	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	18	cc	_	_
15	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
16	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	det	_	_
17	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
19	before	before	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	lie	lie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
25	down	down	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	thereto	thereto	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
30	perversion	perversion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	parataxis	_	_
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: request
- voice: narrator
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed act=request

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **lie** | shall | thou |  |  |  |  | with any beast | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **defile** | to-infinitive | thou *not said here* | thyself |  |  |  | therewith *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **stand** | shall | any woman |  |  | a beast |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before beast=Location |
| 4 | **lie down** | to-infinitive | any woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | down, thereto *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | present | beast | perversion |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
וּבְכָל־בְּהֵמָ֛ה לֹא־תִתֵּ֥ן שְׁכָבְתְּךָ֖ לְטָמְאָה־בָ֑הּ וְאִשָּׁ֗ה לֹֽא־תַעֲמֹ֞ד לִפְנֵ֧י בְהֵמָ֛ה לְרִבְעָ֖הּ תֶּ֥בֶל הֽוּא׃

[Leviticus 18:23: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/LEV.18.23/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:LEV:534` 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: [Leviticus 18:22 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/LEV.533/)
- next →: [Leviticus 18:24 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/LEV.535/)
- ↑ back to [Leviticus 18:23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/LEV.18.23/)