---
title: Numbers 24:20 (JPS 1917) — And he looked on Amalek, and took up his parable, and said: Amalek w… · tree and pragmatics
description: And he looked on Amalek, and took up his parable, and said: Amalek was the first of the nations; but his end shall come to destruction. Who acts: Israel, Amalek, end. Numbers 24:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Numbers 24:20 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And he looked on Amalek, and took up his parable, and said: Amalek was the first of the nations; but his end shall come to destruction.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Israel, Amalek, end · **What happens:** look, take up, say, be, come · **To what, where:** parable, destruction · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Numbers 24:20 · 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 (Israel, Amalek, end), 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:887
# text = And he looked on Amalek, and took up his parable, and said: Amalek was the first of the nations; but his end shall come to destruction.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Amalek	Amalek	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
9	up	up	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	parable	parable	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
15	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	Amalek	Amalek	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumType=Ord	14	ccomp	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	nations	nation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	_
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
27	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	destruction	destruction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past | Israel |  |  |  |  | on Amalek | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on amalek=Theme |
| 2 | **take up** | past | Israel *not said here* | Israel's parable |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent parable=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Israel *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | Amalek |  |  |  |  | of the nations; first *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **come** | shall | Israel's end |  |  | destruction |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to destruction=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיַּרְא֙ אֶת־עֲמָלֵ֔ק וַיִּשָּׂ֥א מְשָׁל֖וֹ וַיֹּאמַ֑ר רֵאשִׁ֤ית גּוֹיִם֙ עֲמָלֵ֔ק וְאַחֲרִית֖וֹ עֲדֵ֥י אֹבֵֽד׃

[Numbers 24:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.24.20/)

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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:887` 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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