---
title: Numbers 17:27 (JPS 1917) — And the children of Israel spoke unto Moses, saying: 'Behold, we per… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the children of Israel spoke unto Moses, saying: 'Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. Who acts: children, we. Numbers 17:27 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.671/)

<!-- 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 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM/17/) / [17:27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.17.27/) / JPS 1

# Numbers 17:27 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the children of Israel spoke unto Moses, saying: 'Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** children, we · **What happens:** speak, say, perish, undo · **To what, where:** we · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Numbers 17:27 · 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, 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:671
# text = And the children of Israel spoke unto Moses, saying: 'Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
12	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	_
13	Behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	16	discourse	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	perish	perish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	undone	undo	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	parataxis	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
22	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
24	all	all	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	undone	undo	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	parataxis	_	_
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | the children of Israel |  |  |  |  | unto Moses | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the children of Israel *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **perish** | present | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn break\_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **undo** | present · passive |  | we |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 5 | **undo** | present · passive |  | we |  |  |  | all *property* | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: subject=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 -->
וַיֹּֽאמְרוּ֙ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֖ה לֵאמֹ֑ר הֵ֥ן גָּוַ֛עְנוּ אָבַ֖דְנוּ כֻּלָּ֥נוּ אָבָֽדְנוּ׃

[Numbers 17:27: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.17.27/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:NUM:671` 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 17:26 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.670/)
- next →: [Numbers 17:28 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.672/)
- ↑ back to [Numbers 17:27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.17.27/)