---
title: Numbers 21:5 (JPS 1917) — And the people spoke against God, and against Moses: 'Wherefore have… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the people spoke against God, and against Moses: 'Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, and there is no water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.' Who acts: people, ye, bread, water. Numbers 21:5 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree an
---

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# Numbers 21:5 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the people spoke against God, and against Moses: 'Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, and there is no water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, ye, bread, water, soul · **What happens:** speak, bring up, die, be, loathe · **To what, where:** us, Egypt, light bread · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Numbers 21:5 · 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, ye, bread, water), 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:760
# text = And the people spoke against God, and against Moses: 'Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, and there is no water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.'
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	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	against	against	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	against	against	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
12	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	_
13	Wherefore	wherefore	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
14	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	16	nsubj	_	_
16	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	parataxis	_	_
17	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	up	up	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
19	out	out	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	wilderness	wilderness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
28	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	30	expl	_	_
30	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
31	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	32	det	_	_
32	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	36	expl	_	_
36	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	conj	_	_
37	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	38	det	_	_
38	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nsubj	_	_
39	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	43	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
41	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	soul	soul	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nsubj	_	_
43	loatheth	loathe	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
44	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	46	det	_	_
45	light	light	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
46	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obj	_	_
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
48	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: express
- voice: narrator
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed act=express, indirect=0, voice=narrator

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | the people |  |  |  |  | against God | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **bring up** | present · perfect | ye | us |  | Egypt |  | wherefore *property* | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent we=Patient |
| 3 | **die** | to-infinitive | ye *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in the wilderness | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in wilderness=Attribute |
| 4 | **be** | present | no bread |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **be** | present | no water |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **loathe** | present | our soul | this light bread |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bread=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר הָעָ֗ם בֵּֽאלֹהִים֮ וּבְמֹשֶׁה֒ לָמָ֤ה הֶֽעֱלִיתֻ֙נוּ֙ מִמִּצְרַ֔יִם לָמ֖וּת בַּמִּדְבָּ֑ר כִּ֣י אֵ֥ין לֶ֙חֶם֙ וְאֵ֣ין מַ֔יִם וְנַפְשֵׁ֣נוּ קָ֔צָה בַּלֶּ֖חֶם הַקְּלֹקֵֽל׃

[Numbers 21:5: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.21.5/)

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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:760` 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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