---
title: Numbers 4:20 (JPS 1917) — but they shall not go in to see the holy things as they are being co… · tree and pragmatics
description: but they shall not go in to see the holy things as they are being covered, lest they die.' Who acts: Levites. Numbers 4:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Numbers 4:20 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
but they shall not go in to see the holy things as they are being covered, lest they die.'

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**Who acts:** Levites · **What happens:** not go in, see, cover, die · **To what, where:** holy things, Levites

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This is Numbers 4:20 · 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 (Levites), 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:160
# text = but they shall not go in to see the holy things as they are being covered, lest they die.'
1	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	holy	holy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	advcl	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	die	die	VERB	VBP	Mood=Sub|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
22	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **go in** | shall | Levites *= levite* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | to-infinitive | Levites *= levite* *not said here* | the holy things |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus |
| 3 | **cover** | present · progressive · passive |  | Levites *= levite* |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Destination |
| 4 | **die** | present | Levites *= levite* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=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 -->
וְלֹא־יָבֹ֧אוּ לִרְא֛וֹת כְּבַלַּ֥ע אֶת־הַקֹּ֖דֶשׁ וָמֵֽתוּ׃פ

[Numbers 4:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.4.20/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:NUM:160` 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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