---
title: Numbers 22:38 (JPS 1917) — And Balaam said unto Balak: 'Lo, I am come unto thee; have I now any… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Balaam said unto Balak: 'Lo, I am come unto thee; have I now any power at all to speak any thing? the word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak.' Who acts: Balaam, I, God. Numbers 22:38 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Numbers 22:38 · JPS 1917

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And Balaam said unto Balak: 'Lo, I am come unto thee; have I now any power at all to speak any thing? the word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak.'

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**Who acts:** Balaam, I, God · **What happens:** say, come, have, speak, put · **To what, where:** power, all, thing, word, mouth, that · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Numbers 22:38 · 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, I, God), 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:829
# text = And Balaam said unto Balak: 'Lo, I am come unto thee; have I now any power at all to speak any thing? the word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Balaam	Balaam	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Balak	Balak	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	_
8	Lo	lo	INTJ	UH	_	12	discourse	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	ccomp	_	_
13	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	_
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
16	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
18	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	_
19	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	det	_	_
20	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	all	all	PRON	DT	PronType=Tot	16	obl	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	acl	_	_
25	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	26	det	_	_
26	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	dislocated	_	_
30	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	32	obj	_	_
31	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
32	putteth	put	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
37	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	40	obj	_	_
38	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
39	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
40	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	parataxis	_	_
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
42	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: other
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- indirect: yes
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Balaam |  |  |  |  | unto Balak | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **come** | present · passive | I |  |  |  |  | unto thee | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | present | I | any power |  | all | now |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent power=Patient |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | any thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **put** | present | God | the word |  | my mouth |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent that=Theme in mouth=Destination |
| 6 | **speak** *speech: other* | shall | I | that |  |  |  | the word *dislocated* | tree rules |

<!-- .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}

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וַיֹּ֨אמֶר בִּלְעָ֜ם אֶל־בָּלָ֗ק הִֽנֵּה־בָ֙אתִי֙ אֵלֶ֔יךָ עַתָּ֕ה הֲיָכ֥וֹל אוּכַ֖ל דַּבֵּ֣ר מְא֑וּמָה הַדָּבָ֗ר אֲשֶׁ֨ר יָשִׂ֧ים אֱלֹהִ֛ים בְּפִ֖י אֹת֥וֹ אֲדַבֵּֽר׃

[Numbers 22:38: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.22.38/)

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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:829` 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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