---
title: Numbers 9:7 (JPS 1917) — And those men said unto him: 'We are unclean by the dead body of a m… · tree and pragmatics
description: And those men said unto him: 'We are unclean by the dead body of a man; wherefore are we to be kept back, so as not to bring the offering of the LORD in its appointed season among the children of Israel?' Who acts: men, We. Numbers 9:7 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.383/)

<!-- 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 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM/9/) / [9:7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.9.7/) / JPS 1

# Numbers 9:7 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And those men said unto him: 'We are unclean by the dead body of a man; wherefore are we to be kept back, so as not to bring the offering of the LORD in its appointed season among the children of Israel?'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** men, We · **What happens:** say, be, keep back, not bring, appoint, offer · **To what, where:** we, offering, LORD · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Numbers 9:7 · 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 (men, 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:383
# text = And those men said unto him: 'We are unclean by the dead body of a man; wherefore are we to be kept back, so as not to bring the offering of the LORD in its appointed season among the children of Israel?'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
8	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	_
9	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	unclean	unclean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	ccomp	_	_
12	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
20	wherefore	wherefore	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
21	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
22	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	parataxis	_	_
26	back	back	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
28	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
29	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	fixed	_	_
30	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	32	advmod	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	offering	offering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	_
38	in	in	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
39	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
40	appointed	appoint	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	41	amod	_	_
41	season	season	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
42	among	among	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	_
45	of	of	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	44	nmod	_	_
47	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
48	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | that men |  |  |  |  | unto Moses | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | We |  |  |  |  | by the dead body of a man; unclean *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **keep back** | present · passive |  | we |  |  |  | wherefore *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **bring** | to-infinitive |  | the offering of the LORD |  |  | season | among the children of Israel | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent offering=Theme |
| 5 | **appoint** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **offer** |  |  | the LORD |  |  |  |  | nom offering «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 -->
וַ֠יֹּאמְרוּ הָאֲנָשִׁ֤ים הָהֵ֙מָּה֙ אֵלָ֔יו אֲנַ֥חְנוּ טְמֵאִ֖ים לְנֶ֣פֶשׁ אָדָ֑ם לָ֣מָּה נִגָּרַ֗ע לְבִלְתִּ֨י הַקְרִ֜ב אֶת־קָרְבַּ֤ן יְהוָה֙ בְּמֹ֣עֲד֔וֹ בְּת֖וֹךְ בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

[Numbers 9:7: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.9.7/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:NUM:383` 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 9:6 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.382/)
- next →: [Numbers 9:8 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.384/)
- ↑ back to [Numbers 9:7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.9.7/)