---
title: Numbers 21:9 (JPS 1917) — And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon the pole; and it… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon the pole; and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived. Who acts: Moses, pole, serpent. Numbers 21:9 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Numbers 21:9 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon the pole; and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Moses, pole, serpent · **What happens:** make, set, come, pass, bite, look · **To what, where:** serpent, brass, pole, man

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Numbers 21:9 · 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 (Moses, pole, serpent), 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:764
# text = And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon the pole; and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	brass	brass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	pole	pole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
23	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	bitten	bite	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	41	advcl	_	_
28	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	29	det	_	_
29	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	33	mark	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	advcl	_	_
34	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	brass	brass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	_
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
40	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
41	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	ccomp	_	_
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	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 | **make** | past | Moses | a serpent of brass |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent serpent=Product |
| 2 | **set** | past | Moses *not said here* | brass |  | the pole |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme upon pole=Destination |
| 3 | **come** | past | pole |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **pass** | to-infinitive | pole *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **bite** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | a serpent | any man |  |  |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Patient |
| 6 | **look** | past | Moses |  |  |  |  | unto the serpent of brass | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 7 | **live** | past | Moses |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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 -->
וַיַּ֤עַשׂ מֹשֶׁה֙ נְחַ֣שׁ נְחֹ֔שֶׁת וַיְשִׂמֵ֖הוּ עַל־הַנֵּ֑ס וְהָיָ֗ה אִם־נָשַׁ֤ךְ הַנָּחָשׁ֙ אֶת־אִ֔ישׁ וְהִבִּ֛יט אֶל־נְחַ֥שׁ הַנְּחֹ֖שֶׁת וָחָֽי׃

[Numbers 21:9: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.21.9/)

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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:764` 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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