---
title: Numbers 21:7 (JPS 1917) — And the people came to Moses, and said: 'We have sinned, because we… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the people came to Moses, and said: 'We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us.' And Moses prayed for the people. Who acts: people, We, LORD, Moses. Numbers 21:7 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and t
---

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# Numbers 21:7 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the people came to Moses, and said: 'We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us.' And Moses prayed for the people.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, We, LORD, Moses · **What happens:** come, say, sin, speak, pray, take away · **To what, where:** Moses, serpents · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Numbers 21:7 · 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, LORD, Moses), 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:762
# text = And the people came to Moses, and said: 'We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us.' And Moses prayed for the people.
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	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	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	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
11	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	_
12	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	sinned	sin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	ccomp	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
20	against	against	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	against	against	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	22	conj	_	_
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
28	pray	pray	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
29	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
34	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	take	take	VERB	VBP	Mood=Sub|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	ccomp	_	_
36	away	away	ADP	RP	_	35	compound:prt	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	serpents	serpent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obj	_	_
39	from	from	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	obl	_	_
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
42	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
43	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
44	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	45	nsubj	_	_
45	prayed	pray	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
46	for	for	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	obl	_	_
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the people |  |  | Moses |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to moses=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **sin** | present · perfect | We |  |  |  |  |  | vn rebel-71.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | present · perfect | we |  |  |  |  | against the LORD | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **pray** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | unto the LORD | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 6 | **take away** | present | LORD | the serpents |  |  |  | from us | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent serpent=Theme from we=Initial\_Location |
| 7 | **pray** | past | Moses |  |  |  |  | for the people | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for people=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 -->
וַיָּבֹא֩ הָעָ֨ם אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֜ה וַיֹּאמְר֣וּ חָטָ֗אנוּ כִּֽי־דִבַּ֤רְנוּ בַֽיהוָה֙ וָבָ֔ךְ הִתְפַּלֵּל֙ אֶל־יְהוָ֔ה וְיָסֵ֥ר מֵעָלֵ֖ינוּ אֶת־הַנָּחָ֑שׁ וַיִּתְפַּלֵּ֥ל מֹשֶׁ֖ה בְּעַ֥ד הָעָֽם׃

[Numbers 21:7: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.21.7/)

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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:762` 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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