---
title: Numbers 14:2 (JPS 1917) — And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aa… · tree and pragmatics
description: And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole congregation said unto them: 'Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would we had died in this wilderness! Who acts: children, whole congregation, we. Numbers 14:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and
---

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# Numbers 14:2 · JPS 1917

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And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole congregation said unto them: 'Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would we had died in this wilderness!

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**Who acts:** children, whole congregation, we · **What happens:** murmur, say, die · **To what, where:** Moses · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Numbers 14:2 · 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 (children, whole congregation, 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:523
# text = And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole congregation said unto them: 'Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would we had died in this wilderness!
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	4	det:predet	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	murmured	murmur	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	against	against	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	against	against	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Aaron	Aaron	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	congregation	congregation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
19	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
21	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
22	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	_
23	Would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	died	die	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	ccomp	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
33	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	_
34	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
35	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
36	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
37	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
38	died	die	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	conj	_	_
39	in	in	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	41	det	_	_
41	wilderness	wilderness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
42	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: exclamation
- act: express
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed form=excl

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **murmur** *speech: other* | past | all children of Israel |  |  | Moses and Aaron |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme against moses=Location |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the whole congregation |  |  |  |  | unto children *= child* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **die** | would · perfect | we |  |  |  |  | in the land of Egypt | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in land=Attribute |
| 4 | **die** | would · perfect | we |  |  |  |  | in this wilderness | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in wilderness=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}

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וַיִּלֹּ֙נוּ֙ עַל־מֹשֶׁ֣ה וְעַֽל־אַהֲרֹ֔ן כֹּ֖ל בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַֽיֹּאמְר֨וּ אֲלֵהֶ֜ם כָּל־הָעֵדָ֗ה לוּ־מַ֙תְנוּ֙ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם א֛וֹ בַּמִּדְבָּ֥ר הַזֶּ֖ה לוּ־מָֽתְנוּ׃

[Numbers 14:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.14.2/)

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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:523` 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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