---
title: Numbers 14:3 (JPS 1917) — Our wives and our little ones will be a prey; were it not better for… · tree and pragmatics
description: Our wives and our little ones will be a prey; were it not better for us to return into Egypt?' Who acts: wives, us. Numbers 14:3 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.525/)

<!-- 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 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM/14/) / [14:3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.14.3/) / JPS 2

# Numbers 14:3 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Our wives and our little ones will be a prey; were it not better for us to return into Egypt?'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wives, us · **What happens:** be, not be, return · **To what, where:** prey, Egypt

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Numbers 14:3 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2 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 (wives, us), 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:525
# text = Our wives and our little ones will be a prey; were it not better for us to return into Egypt?'
1	Our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	wives	wife	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
4	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
7	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	prey	prey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	expl	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	10	parataxis	_	_
16	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	csubj	_	_
20	into	into	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
23	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | future | Our wives and our little ones | a prey |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **return** | to-infinitive | us |  |  | Egypt |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into egypt=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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 -->
וְלָמָ֣ה יְ֠הוָה מֵבִ֨יא אֹתָ֜נוּ אֶל־הָאָ֤רֶץ הַזֹּאת֙ לִנְפֹּ֣ל בַּחֶ֔רֶב נָשֵׁ֥ינוּ וְטַפֵּ֖נוּ יִהְי֣וּ לָבַ֑ז הֲל֧וֹא ט֦וֹב לָ֖נוּ שׁ֥וּב מִצְרָֽיְמָה׃

[Numbers 14:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.14.3/)

<!-- .note -->
This verse in JPS 1917:

<!-- .ens -->
1. [And wherefore doth the LORD bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.524/)
2. **Our wives and our little ones will be a prey; were it not better for us to return into Egypt?'**

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:NUM:525` 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 14:3 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.524/)
- next →: [Numbers 14:4 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.526/)
- ↑ back to [Numbers 14:3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.14.3/)