---
title: Numbers 23:20 (JPS 1917) — Behold, I am bidden to bless; and when He hath blessed, I cannot cal… · tree and pragmatics
description: Behold, I am bidden to bless; and when He hath blessed, I cannot call it back. Who acts: son, I. Numbers 23:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Numbers 23:20 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Behold, I am bidden to bless; and when He hath blessed, I cannot call it back.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** son, I · **What happens:** bid, bless, not call back · **To what, where:** I, ear

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This is Numbers 23:20 · 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 (son, 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:856
# text = Behold, I am bidden to bless; and when He hath blessed, I cannot call it back.
1	Behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	_
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	bidden	bid	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	bless	bless	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
10	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	13	mark	_	_
11	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	hath	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	blessed	bless	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	back	back	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	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 | **bid** | present · passive |  | I |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **bless** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **bless** | present · perfect | son |  |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **call back** *speech: assert* | can | I | ear |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Recipient |

<!-- .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 -->
הִנֵּ֥ה בָרֵ֖ךְ לָקָ֑חְתִּי וּבֵרֵ֖ךְ וְלֹ֥א אֲשִׁיבֶֽנָּה׃

[Numbers 23:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.23.20/)

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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:856` 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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