---
title: Numbers 23:12 (JPS 1917) — And he answered and said: 'Must I not take heed to speak that which… · tree and pragmatics
description: And he answered and said: 'Must I not take heed to speak that which the LORD putteth in my mouth?' Who acts: Balak, I, LORD. Numbers 23:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Numbers 23:12 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And he answered and said: 'Must I not take heed to speak that which the LORD putteth in my mouth?'

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**Who acts:** Balak, I, LORD · **What happens:** answer, say, not take, speak, put · **To what, where:** heed, that, mouth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Numbers 23:12 · 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 (Balak, I, LORD), 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:847
# text = And he answered and said: 'Must I not take heed to speak that which the LORD putteth in my mouth?'
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	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	_
8	Must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
12	heed	heed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
15	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	14	obj	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	obj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	putteth	put	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
24	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no question
- act: request
- 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 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Balak |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Balak *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **take** | must | I | heed |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent heed=Theme |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | that |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **put** | present | the LORD |  |  | my mouth |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent which=Theme in mouth=Destination |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיַּ֖עַן וַיֹּאמַ֑ר הֲלֹ֗א אֵת֩ אֲשֶׁ֨ר יָשִׂ֤ים יְהוָה֙ בְּפִ֔י אֹת֥וֹ אֶשְׁמֹ֖ר לְדַבֵּֽר׃

[Numbers 23:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.23.12/)

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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:847` 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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