---
title: Numbers 23:29 (JPS 1917) — And Balaam said unto Balak: 'Build me here seven altars, and prepare… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Balaam said unto Balak: 'Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams.' Who acts: Balaam. Numbers 23:29 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Numbers 23:29 · JPS 1917

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And Balaam said unto Balak: 'Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams.'

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**Who acts:** Balaam · **What happens:** say, build, prepare · **To what, where:** seven altars, me, seven bullocks · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Numbers 23:29 · 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), 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:865
# text = And Balaam said unto Balak: 'Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Balaam	Balaam	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Balak	Balak	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	_
8	Build	build	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
9	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	iobj	_	_
10	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	_
11	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	altars	altar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	prepare	prepare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
16	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	_
18	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nummod	_	_
19	bullocks	bullock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
22	rams	ram	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	conj	_	_
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
24	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: request
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Balaam |  |  |  |  | unto Balak | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **build** | infinitive |  | seven altars | me |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset i=Beneficiary altar=Product |
| 3 | **prepare** | infinitive |  | seven bullocks and seven rams | me | here; here |  |  | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary bullock=Product |

<!-- .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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וַיֹּ֤אמֶר בִּלְעָם֙ אֶל־בָּלָ֔ק בְּנֵה־לִ֥י בָזֶ֖ה שִׁבְעָ֣ה מִזְבְּחֹ֑ת וְהָכֵ֥ן לִי֙ בָּזֶ֔ה שִׁבְעָ֥ה פָרִ֖ים וְשִׁבְעָ֥ה אֵילִֽים׃

[Numbers 23:29: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.23.29/)

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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:865` 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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