---
title: Numbers 32:16 (JPS 1917) — And they came near unto him, and said: 'We will build sheepfolds her… · tree and pragmatics
description: And they came near unto him, and said: 'We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones; Who acts: fathers, We. Numbers 32:16 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.1164/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Torah](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/) / [Numbers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM/) / [chapter 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM/32/) / [32:16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.32.16/) / JPS 1

# Numbers 32:16 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And they came near unto him, and said: 'We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones;

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fathers, We · **What happens:** come, say, build · **To what, where:** sheepfolds · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Numbers 32:16 · 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 (fathers, We), 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:NUM:1164
# text = And they came near unto him, and said: 'We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones;
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	near	near	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
11	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	_
12	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	build	build	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
15	sheepfolds	sheepfold	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
16	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	cattle	cattle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	cities	city	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | fathers *= father* |  |  |  |  | unto LORD; near *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | fathers *= father* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **build** | future | We | sheepfolds and cities for our little ones |  | here |  | for our cattle | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent sheepfold=Material for cattle=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיִּגְּשׁ֤וּ אֵלָיו֙ וַ֣יֹּאמְר֔וּ גִּדְרֹ֥ת צֹ֛אן נִבְנֶ֥ה לְמִקְנֵ֖נוּ פֹּ֑ה וְעָרִ֖ים לְטַפֵּֽנוּ׃

[Numbers 32:16: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.32.16/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:NUM:1164` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Numbers 32:15 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.1163/)
- next →: [Numbers 32:17 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.1165/)
- ↑ back to [Numbers 32:16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.32.16/)