---
title: Leviticus 25:39 (JPS 1917) — And if thy brother be waxen poor with thee, and sell himself unto th… · tree and pragmatics
description: And if thy brother be waxen poor with thee, and sell himself unto thee, thou shalt not make him to serve as a bondservant. Who acts: brother, thou. Leviticus 25:39 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Leviticus 25:39 · JPS 1917

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And if thy brother be waxen poor with thee, and sell himself unto thee, thou shalt not make him to serve as a bondservant.

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**Who acts:** brother, thou · **What happens:** waxen, be, sell, not make, not serve · **To what, where:** brother

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This is Leviticus 25:39 · 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 (brother, 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:LEV:772
# text = And if thy brother be waxen poor with thee, and sell himself unto thee, thou shalt not make him to serve as a bondservant.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
2	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
3	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	Mood=Sub|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	waxen	waxen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	advmod	_	_
7	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	advcl	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	7	obl	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	sell	sell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
13	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	12	obj	_	_
14	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	12	obl	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	20	nsubj	_	_
18	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	serve	serve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
24	as	as	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	bondservant	bondservant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **waxen** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | infinitive | thy brother |  |  |  |  | with thee; poor *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **sell** | infinitive | thy brother *not said here* | brother |  |  |  | unto thee | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **make** | shall | thou | brother |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **serve** | to-infinitive | brother *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as a bondservant | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent as bondservant=Attribute |

<!-- .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 -->
וְכִֽי־יָמ֥וּךְ אָחִ֛יךָ עִמָּ֖ךְ וְנִמְכַּר־לָ֑ךְ לֹא־תַעֲבֹ֥ד בּ֖וֹ עֲבֹ֥דַת עָֽבֶד׃

[Leviticus 25:39: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/LEV.25.39/)

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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:772` 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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