---
title: Numbers 20:3 (JPS 1917) — And the people strove with Moses, and spoke, saying: 'Would that we… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the people strove with Moses, and spoke, saying: 'Would that we had perished when our brethren perished before the LORD! Who acts: people, we, brethren. Numbers 20:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Numbers 20:3 · JPS 1917

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And the people strove with Moses, and spoke, saying: 'Would that we had perished when our brethren perished before the LORD!

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**Who acts:** people, we, brethren · **What happens:** strive, speak, say, perish · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Numbers 20:3 · 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 (people, we, brethren), 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:729
# text = And the people strove with Moses, and spoke, saying: 'Would that we had perished when our brethren perished before the LORD!
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	strove	strive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
13	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	_
14	Would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	perished	perish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	ccomp	_	_
19	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	22	mark	_	_
20	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	brethren	brethren	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
22	perished	perish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
23	before	before	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strive** | past | the people |  |  |  |  | with Moses | tree rules |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | the people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **perish** | would · perfect | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn break\_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **perish** | past | our brethren |  |  |  | before the LORD |  | vn break\_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=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}

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וַיָּ֥רֶב הָעָ֖ם עִם־מֹשֶׁ֑ה וַיֹּאמְר֣וּ לֵאמֹ֔ר וְל֥וּ גָוַ֛עְנוּ בִּגְוַ֥ע אַחֵ֖ינוּ לִפְנֵ֥י יְהוָֽה׃

[Numbers 20:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.20.3/)

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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:729` 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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