---
title: Numbers 23:26 (JPS 1917) — But Balaam answered and said unto Balak: 'Told not I thee, saying: A… · tree and pragmatics
description: But Balaam answered and said unto Balak: 'Told not I thee, saying: All that the LORD speaketh, that I must do?' Who acts: Balaam, I, LORD. Numbers 23:26 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Numbers 23:26 · JPS 1917

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But Balaam answered and said unto Balak: 'Told not I thee, saying: All that the LORD speaketh, that I must do?'

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**Who acts:** Balaam, I, LORD · **What happens:** answer, say, not tell, speak, do · **To what, where:** thee, All · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Numbers 23:26 · 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 (Balaam, 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:862
# text = But Balaam answered and said unto Balak: 'Told not I thee, saying: All that the LORD speaketh, that I must do?'
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Balaam	Balaam	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	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	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	Balak	Balak	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
9	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	_
10	Told	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
13	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	10	iobj	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
17	All	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	26	obj	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	obj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	speaketh	speak	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	obj	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
28	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no question
- act: disagree
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- indirect: yes
- teacher: changed act=disagree

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Balaam |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Balaam *not said here* |  |  |  |  | unto Balak | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive | I |  | thee |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent thou=Recipient |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **speak** *speech: other* | present | the LORD |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **do** | must | I | All |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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}

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וַיַּ֣עַן בִּלְעָ֔ם וַיֹּ֖אמֶר אֶל־בָּלָ֑ק הֲלֹ֗א דִּבַּ֤רְתִּי אֵלֶ֙יךָ֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר כֹּ֛ל אֲשֶׁר־יְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהוָ֖ה אֹת֥וֹ אֶֽעֱשֶֽׂה׃

[Numbers 23:26: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.23.26/)

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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:862` 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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