---
title: Numbers 8:12 (JPS 1917) — And the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bullocks… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bullocks; and offer thou the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering, unto the LORD, to make atonement for the Levites. Who acts: Levites, thou. Numbers 8:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# Numbers 8:12 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bullocks; and offer thou the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering, unto the LORD, to make atonement for the Levites.

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**Who acts:** Levites, thou · **What happens:** lay, offer, burn, make · **To what, where:** hands, heads, one, atonement

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This is Numbers 8:12 · 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, 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:NUM:361
# text = And the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bullocks; and offer thou the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering, unto the LORD, to make atonement for the Levites.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Levites	levite	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	bullocks	bullock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	offer	offer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
17	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	16	nsubj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	sin	sin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	_
24	offering	offering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	_
29	for	for	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
31	burnt	burn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	amod	_	_
32	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	31	punct	_	_
33	offering	offering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
39	to	to	PART	TO	_	40	mark	_	_
40	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
41	atonement	atonement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obj	_	_
42	for	for	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	Levites	levite	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	40	obl	_	_
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lay** | shall | the Levites | Levites's hands |  | the heads of the bullocks |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent hand=Theme upon head=Destination |
| 2 | **offer** | infinitive | thou | the one |  |  |  | unto the LORD | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent one=Theme |
| 3 | **burn** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **make** | to-infinitive | the Levites *not said here* | atonement |  |  |  | for the Levites | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent atonement=Product for levite=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 -->
וְהַלְוִיִּם֙ יִסְמְכ֣וּ אֶת־יְדֵיהֶ֔ם עַ֖ל רֹ֣אשׁ הַפָּרִ֑ים וַ֠עֲשֵׂה אֶת־הָאֶחָ֨ד חַטָּ֜את וְאֶת־הָאֶחָ֤ד עֹלָה֙ לַֽיהוָ֔ה לְכַפֵּ֖ר עַל־הַלְוִיִּֽם׃

[Numbers 8:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.8.12/)

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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:361` 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: [Numbers 8:11 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.360/)
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