---
title: Numbers 22:27 (JPS 1917) — And the ass saw the angel of the LORD, and she lay down under Balaam… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the ass saw the angel of the LORD, and she lay down under Balaam; and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with his staff. Who acts: ass, anger, angel, Balaam. Numbers 22:27 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Numbers 22:27 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the ass saw the angel of the LORD, and she lay down under Balaam; and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with his staff.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** ass, anger, angel, Balaam · **What happens:** see, lie down, kindle, smite, anger · **To what, where:** angel, Balaam, anger, ass

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Numbers 22:27 · 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 (ass, anger, angel, Balaam), 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:818
# text = And the ass saw the angel of the LORD, and she lay down under Balaam; and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with his staff.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	angel	angel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	down	down	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	under	under	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	Balaam	Balaam	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
19	Balaam	Balaam	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	_
20	's	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
21	anger	anger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	kindled	kindle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	smote	smite	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	with	with	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	staff	staff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the ass | the angel of the LORD |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer angel=Stimulus |
| 2 | **lie down** | past | anger |  |  | Balaam |  | down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent under balaam=Location |
| 3 | **kindle** | past · passive |  | Balaam's anger |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 4 | **smite** | past | angel | the ass |  |  |  | with angel's staff | vn hit-18.1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent ass=Patient with staff=Instrument |
| 5 | **anger** |  | Balaam |  |  |  |  |  | nom anger «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
וַתֵּ֤רֶא הָֽאָתוֹן֙ אֶת־מַלְאַ֣ךְ יְהוָ֔ה וַתִּרְבַּ֖ץ תַּ֣חַת בִּלְעָ֑ם וַיִּֽחַר־אַ֣ף בִּלְעָ֔ם וַיַּ֥ךְ אֶת־הָאָת֖וֹן בַּמַּקֵּֽל׃

[Numbers 22:27: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.22.27/)

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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:818` 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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