---
title: Numbers 22:18 (JPS 1917) — And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak: 'If Balak w… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak: 'If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do any thing, small or great. Who acts: Balaam, Balak, I. Numbers 22:18 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Numbers 22:18 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak: 'If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do any thing, small or great.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Balaam, Balak, I · **What happens:** answer, say, give, not go, do, word · **To what, where:** house, me, word, thing, LORD · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Numbers 22:18 · 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 (Balaam, Balak, I), 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:809
# text = And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak: 'If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do any thing, small or great.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Balaam	Balaam	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
6	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	Balak	Balak	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
12	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	_
13	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	Balak	Balak	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
30	beyond	beyond	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	_
36	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	appos	_	_
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
39	to	to	PART	TO	_	40	mark	_	_
40	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	_
41	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	42	det	_	_
42	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obj	_	_
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
44	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
45	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
46	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	conj	_	_
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=assert

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Balaam |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Balaam *not said here* |  |  |  |  | unto the servants of Balak | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **give** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | Balak | Balak's house | me |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient house=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **go** | can | I |  |  | the word of the LORD |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme beyond word=Location |
| 5 | **do** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | any thing |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Eventuality |
| 6 | **word** |  |  | the LORD |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיַּ֣עַן בִּלְעָ֗ם וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ אֶל־עַבְדֵ֣י בָלָ֔ק אִם־יִתֶּן־לִ֥י בָלָ֛ק מְלֹ֥א בֵית֖וֹ כֶּ֣סֶף וְזָהָ֑ב לֹ֣א אוּכַ֗ל לַעֲבֹר֙ אֶת־פִּי֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהָ֔י לַעֲשׂ֥וֹת קְטַנָּ֖ה א֥וֹ גְדוֹלָֽה׃

[Numbers 22:18: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.22.18/)

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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:809` 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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