---
title: Numbers 21:1 (JPS 1917) — And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the South, heard t… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the South, heard tell that Israel came by the way of Atharim; and he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive. Who acts: Canaanite, Israel. Numbers 21:1 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Numbers 21:1 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the South, heard tell that Israel came by the way of Atharim; and he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Canaanite, Israel · **What happens:** dwell, hear, tell, come, fight, take · **To what, where:** South, some · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Numbers 21:1 · 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 (Canaanite, Israel), 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:756
# text = And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the South, heard tell that Israel came by the way of Atharim; and he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Canaanite	canaanite	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Arad	Arad	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	dwelt	dwell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	South	South	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
16	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	ccomp	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	Atharim	Atharim	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
26	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	fought	fight	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
30	against	against	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	conj	_	_
35	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	34	obj	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nmod	_	_
38	captive	captive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	xcomp	_	_
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	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 | **dwell** | past | the Canaanite |  |  | the South |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in south=Location |
| 2 | **hear** | past | the Canaanite |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive | the Canaanite *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **come** | past | Israel |  |  |  |  | by the way of Atharim | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by way=Location |
| 5 | **fight** | past | Israel |  |  |  |  | against Israel | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **take** | past | Israel *not said here* | some |  |  |  | captive *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent some=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}

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וַיִּשְׁמַ֞ע הַכְּנַעֲנִ֤י מֶֽלֶךְ־עֲרָד֙ יֹשֵׁ֣ב הַנֶּ֔גֶב כִּ֚י בָּ֣א יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל דֶּ֖רֶךְ הָאֲתָרִ֑ים וַיִּלָּ֙חֶם֙ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וַיִּ֥שְׁבְּ ׀ מִמֶּ֖נּוּ שֶֽׁבִי׃

[Numbers 21:1: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.21.1/)

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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:756` 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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