---
title: Numbers 24:1 (JPS 1917) — And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he wen… · tree and pragmatics
description: And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he went not, as at the other times, to meet with enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness. Who acts: Balaam. Numbers 24:1 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Numbers 24:1 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he went not, as at the other times, to meet with enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Balaam · **What happens:** see, please, bless, not go, meet, set · **To what, where:** it, Israel, face · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Numbers 24:1 · 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:867
# text = And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he went not, as at the other times, to meet with enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
3	Balaam	Balaam	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	expl	_	_
7	pleased	please	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	bless	bless	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	csubj	_	_
12	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	as	as	ADP	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	meet	meet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	enchantments	enchantment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
34	toward	toward	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	wilderness	wilderness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | Balaam |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **please** | past |  | it |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus lord=Experiencer |
| 3 | **bless** | to-infinitive |  | Israel |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent israel=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **go** | past | Balaam |  |  |  | time |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **meet** | to-infinitive | Balaam *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with enchantments | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with enchantment=Co-Agent |
| 6 | **set** | past | Balaam | Balaam's face |  |  |  | toward the wilderness | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient face=Result |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיַּ֣רְא בִּלְעָ֗ם כִּ֣י ט֞וֹב בְּעֵינֵ֤י יְהוָה֙ לְבָרֵ֣ךְ אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וְלֹא־הָלַ֥ךְ כְּפַֽעַם־בְּפַ֖עַם לִקְרַ֣את נְחָשִׁ֑ים וַיָּ֥שֶׁת אֶל־הַמִּדְבָּ֖ר פָּנָֽיו׃

[Numbers 24:1: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.24.1/)

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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:867` 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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