---
title: Numbers 23:4 (JPS 1917) — And God met Balaam; and he said unto Him: 'I have prepared the seven… · tree and pragmatics
description: And God met Balaam; and he said unto Him: 'I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bullock and a ram on every altar.' Who acts: God, Balaam, I. Numbers 23:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Numbers 23:4 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And God met Balaam; and he said unto Him: 'I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bullock and a ram on every altar.'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** God, Balaam, I · **What happens:** meet, say, prepare, offer up · **To what, where:** Balaam, seven altars, bullock, altar · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Numbers 23:4 · 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 (God, Balaam, 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:836
# text = And God met Balaam; and he said unto Him: 'I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bullock and a ram on every altar.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	Balaam	Balaam	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
9	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	Him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	_
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	prepared	prepare	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	ccomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	altars	altar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	offered	offer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	conj	_	_
24	up	up	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	bullock	bullock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	ram	ram	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	32	det	_	_
32	altar	altar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
34	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** | past | God | Balaam |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent balaam=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Balaam |  |  |  |  | unto God | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **prepare** | present · perfect | I | the seven altars |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent altar=Patient |
| 4 | **offer up** | present · perfect | I | a bullock and a ram |  | every altar |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent bullock=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 -->
וַיִּקָּ֥ר אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶל־בִּלְעָ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלָ֗יו אֶת־שִׁבְעַ֤ת הַֽמִּזְבְּחֹת֙ עָרַ֔כְתִּי וָאַ֛עַל פָּ֥ר וָאַ֖יִל בַּמִּזְבֵּֽחַ׃

[Numbers 23:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.23.4/)

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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:836` 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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