---
title: Numbers 23:16 (JPS 1917) — And the LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said: 'Ret… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said: 'Return unto Balak, and thus shalt thou speak.' Who acts: LORD, thou. Numbers 23:16 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Numbers 23:16 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said: 'Return unto Balak, and thus shalt thou speak.'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** LORD, thou · **What happens:** meet, put, say, return, speak · **To what, where:** Balaam, word, mouth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Numbers 23:16 · 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, 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:851
# text = And the LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said: 'Return unto Balak, and thus shalt thou speak.'
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	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	Balaam	Balaam	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
18	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	_
19	Return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
20	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Balak	Balak	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
25	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	27	nsubj	_	_
27	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
29	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: request
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=imp, polarity=none

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** | past | the LORD | Balaam |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent balaam=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **put** | past | the LORD *not said here* | a word |  | LORD's mouth |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent word=Theme in mouth=Destination |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the LORD *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **return** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | unto Balak | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **speak** *speech: other* | shall | thou |  |  |  |  | thus *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיִּקָּ֤ר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־בִּלְעָ֔ם וַיָּ֥שֶׂם דָּבָ֖ר בְּפִ֑יו וַיֹּ֛אמֶר שׁ֥וּב אֶל־בָּלָ֖ק וְכֹ֥ה תְדַבֵּֽר׃

[Numbers 23:16: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.23.16/)

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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:851` 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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