---
title: Numbers 22:28 (JPS 1917) — And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam:… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam: 'What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?' Who acts: LORD, anger, I, thou. Numbers 22:28 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.819/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Torah](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/) / [Numbers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM/) / [chapter 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM/22/) / [22:28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.22.28/) / JPS 1

# Numbers 22:28 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam: 'What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** LORD, anger, I, thou · **What happens:** open, say, do, smite · **To what, where:** mouth, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Numbers 22:28 · 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 (LORD, anger, I, thou), 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:819
# text = And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam: 'What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	mouth	mouth	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	ass	ass	NOUN	NN	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	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	Balaam	Balaam	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
17	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	_
18	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	21	obj	_	_
19	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	ccomp	_	_
22	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	21	obl	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	28	nsubj	_	_
27	hast	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	smitten	smite	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	_
29	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	32	det	_	_
31	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	nummod	_	_
32	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl:unmarked	_	_
33	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
34	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=wh, voice=narrator

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | past | the LORD | the mouth of the ass |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location mouth=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | anger |  |  |  |  | unto Balaam | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** | present · perfect | I |  |  |  |  | unto thee | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 4 | **smite** | present · perfect | thou | me |  |  | time |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus i=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיִּפְתַּ֥ח יְהוָ֖ה אֶת־פִּ֣י הָאָת֑וֹן וַתֹּ֤אמֶר לְבִלְעָם֙ מֶה־עָשִׂ֣יתִֽי לְךָ֔ כִּ֣י הִכִּיתַ֔נִי זֶ֖ה שָׁלֹ֥שׁ רְגָלִֽים׃

[Numbers 22:28: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.22.28/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:NUM:819` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Numbers 22:27 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.818/)
- next →: [Numbers 22:29 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.820/)
- ↑ back to [Numbers 22:28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.22.28/)