---
title: Numbers 17:17 (JPS 1917) — 'Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of them rods, one for e… · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of them rods, one for each fathers' house, of all their princes according to their fathers' houses, twelve rods; thou shalt write every man's name upon his rod. Who acts: you, thou, man. Numbers 17:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# Numbers 17:17 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
'Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of them rods, one for each fathers' house, of all their princes according to their fathers' houses, twelve rods; thou shalt write every man's name upon his rod.

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**Who acts:** you, thou, man · **What happens:** speak, take, accord, write, name · **To what, where:** rods, name · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Numbers 17:17 · 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 (you, thou, man), 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:661
# text = 'Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of them rods, one for each fathers' house, of all their princes according to their fathers' houses, twelve rods; thou shalt write every man's name upon his rod.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	_
2	Speak	speak	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	take	take	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	_
13	rods	rod	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	appos	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	18	det	_	_
18	fathers	father	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	'	's	PART	POS	_	18	case	_	_
20	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	25	det:predet	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	princes	prince	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	_
26	according	accord	VERB	VBG	ExtPos=ADP|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	case	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	fixed	_	_
28	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	fathers	father	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	'	's	PART	POS	_	29	case	_	_
31	houses	house	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	_
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	34	nummod	_	_
34	rods	rod	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	appos	_	_
35	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	_
36	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	38	nsubj	_	_
37	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
38	write	write	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
39	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	40	det	_	_
40	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nmod:poss	_	_
41	's	's	PART	POS	_	40	case	_	_
42	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
43	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	45	nmod:poss	_	_
45	rod	rod	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: request
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed voice=character

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | unto the children of Israel | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **take** | infinitive | you *not said here* | rods of fathers's princes |  |  |  | of children *= child*; accord princes's fathers's houses | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent rod=Theme of they=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **accord** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **write** | shall | thou | every man's name |  |  |  | upon Israel's rod | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent name=Theme |
| 5 | **name** |  | every man |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
דַּבֵּ֣ר ׀ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל וְקַ֣ח מֵֽאִתָּ֡ם מַטֶּ֣ה מַטֶּה֩ לְבֵ֨ית אָ֜ב מֵאֵ֤ת כָּל־נְשִֽׂיאֵהֶם֙ לְבֵ֣ית אֲבֹתָ֔ם שְׁנֵ֥ים עָשָׂ֖ר מַטּ֑וֹת אִ֣ישׁ אֶת־שְׁמ֔וֹ תִּכְתֹּ֖ב עַל־מַטֵּֽהוּ׃

[Numbers 17:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.17.17/)

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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:661` 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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- next →: [Numbers 17:18 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.662/)
- ↑ back to [Numbers 17:17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.17.17/)