---
title: Numbers 23:7 (JPS 1917) — And he took up his parable, and said: From Aram Balak bringeth me, t… · tree and pragmatics
description: And he took up his parable, and said: From Aram Balak bringeth me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the East: 'Come, curse me Jacob, and come, execrate Israel.' Who acts: LORD, Balak. Numbers 23:7 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.839/)

<!-- 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 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM/23/) / [23:7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.23.7/) / JPS 1

# Numbers 23:7 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And he took up his parable, and said: From Aram Balak bringeth me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the East: 'Come, curse me Jacob, and come, execrate Israel.'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** LORD, Balak · **What happens:** take up, say, bring, come, curse, execrate · **To what, where:** parable, me, Aram, Jacob, Israel · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Numbers 23:7 · 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, Balak), 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:839
# text = And he took up his parable, and said: From Aram Balak bringeth me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the East: 'Come, curse me Jacob, and come, execrate Israel.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	up	up	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	parable	parable	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
11	From	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Aram	Aram	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
13	Balak	Balak	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	bringeth	bring	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
15	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	appos	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	Moab	Moab	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	mountains	mountain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	East	East	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
28	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	_
29	Come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	parataxis	_	_
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
31	curse	curse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	conj	_	_
32	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	iobj	_	_
33	Jacob	Jacob	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	conj	_	_
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
38	execrate	execrate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	conj	_	_
39	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
41	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take up** | past | LORD | LORD's parable |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent parable=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | LORD *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **bring** | present | Balak | me |  | Aram |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent i=Theme from aram=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **come** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **curse** | infinitive |  | Jacob | me |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **come** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **execrate** | infinitive |  | Israel |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer israel=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיִּשָּׂ֥א מְשָׁל֖וֹ וַיֹּאמַ֑ר מִן־אֲ֠רָם יַנְחֵ֨נִי בָלָ֤ק מֶֽלֶךְ־מוֹאָב֙ מֵֽהַרְרֵי־קֶ֔דֶם לְכָה֙ אָֽרָה־לִּ֣י יַעֲקֹ֔ב וּלְכָ֖ה זֹעֲמָ֥ה יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

[Numbers 23:7: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.23.7/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:NUM:839` 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 23:6 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.838/)
- next →: [Numbers 23:8 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.840/)
- ↑ back to [Numbers 23:7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.23.7/)