---
title: Numbers 18:23 (JPS 1917) — But the Levites alone shall do the service of the tent of meeting, a… · tree and pragmatics
description: But the Levites alone shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, and among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. Who acts: Levites, tent, children. Numbers 18:23 in JPS 1917 with its de
---

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# Numbers 18:23 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the Levites alone shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, and among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Levites, tent, children · **What happens:** do, bear, be, have, service · **To what, where:** service, iniquity, statute, inheritance, tent

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Numbers 18:23 · 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 (Levites, tent, children), 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:695
# text = But the Levites alone shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, and among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Levites	levite	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	tent	tent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	meeting	meeting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	bear	bear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	iniquity	iniquity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
23	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	cop	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	statute	statute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	parataxis	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
28	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	31	advmod	_	_
29	throughout	throughout	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	generations	generation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	_
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
34	among	among	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	obl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	_
39	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
40	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
41	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
42	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	43	det	_	_
43	inheritance	inheritance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	_
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | shall | the Levites | the service of the tent of meeting |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent service=Eventuality |
| 2 | **bear** | shall | Levites *= levite* | Levites's iniquity |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent iniquity=Patient |
| 3 | **is a** | shall | tent | a statute |  |  | for your generations |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **have** | shall | children *= child* | no inheritance |  |  |  | among the children of Israel | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent inheritance=Patient |
| 5 | **service** |  |  | the tent of meeting |  |  |  |  | nom service «act 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 -->
וְעָבַ֨ד הַלֵּוִ֜י ה֗וּא אֶת־עֲבֹדַת֙ אֹ֣הֶל מוֹעֵ֔ד וְהֵ֖ם יִשְׂא֣וּ עֲוֺנָ֑ם חֻקַּ֤ת עוֹלָם֙ לְדֹרֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם וּבְתוֹךְ֙ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יִנְחֲל֖וּ נַחֲלָֽה׃

[Numbers 18:23: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.18.23/)

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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:695` 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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- ↑ back to [Numbers 18:23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.18.23/)