---
title: Numbers 20:15 (JPS 1917) — how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long t… · tree and pragmatics
description: how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians dealt ill with us, and our fathers; Who acts: fathers, we, Egyptians. Numbers 20:15 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Numbers 20:15 · JPS 1917

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how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians dealt ill with us, and our fathers;

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**Who acts:** fathers, we, Egyptians · **What happens:** go down, dwell, deal · **To what, where:** Egypt

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This is Numbers 20:15 · 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 (fathers, we, Egyptians), 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:741
# text = how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians dealt ill with us, and our fathers;
1	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	fathers	father	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	down	down	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	into	into	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	dwelt	dwell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl:unmarked	_	_
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	Egyptians	egyptian	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
21	dealt	deal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
22	ill	ill	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	21	advmod	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	_
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	fathers	father	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	conj	_	_
29	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed polarity=none

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go down** | past | our fathers |  |  | Egypt |  | down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 2 | **dwell** | past | we |  |  | Egypt | time |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in egypt=Location |
| 3 | **deal** | past | the Egyptians |  |  |  |  | with us; ill *property* | vn cope-83 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with we=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֵּרְד֤וּ אֲבֹתֵ֙ינוּ֙ מִצְרַ֔יְמָה וַנֵּ֥שֶׁב בְּמִצְרַ֖יִם יָמִ֣ים רַבִּ֑ים וַיָּרֵ֥עוּ לָ֛נוּ מִצְרַ֖יִם וְלַאֲבֹתֵֽינוּ׃

[Numbers 20:15: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.20.15/)

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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:741` 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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