---
title: Numbers 24:23 (JPS 1917) — And he took up his parable, and said: Alas, who shall live after God… · tree and pragmatics
description: And he took up his parable, and said: Alas, who shall live after God hath appointed him? Who acts: Asshur, God. Numbers 24:23 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Numbers 24:23 · JPS 1917

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And he took up his parable, and said: Alas, who shall live after God hath appointed him?

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**Who acts:** Asshur, God · **What happens:** take up, say, live, appoint · **To what, where:** parable, Asshur · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Numbers 24:23 · 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 (Asshur, God), 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:891
# text = And he took up his parable, and said: Alas, who shall live after God hath appointed him?
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	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	up	up	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	parable	parable	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
11	Alas	alas	INTJ	UH	_	15	discourse	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	15	nsubj	_	_
14	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
16	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	hath	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	appointed	appoint	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: other
- act: narrate
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed act=narrate, form=other, voice=character

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take up** | past | Asshur | Asshur's parable |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent parable=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Asshur *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **live** | shall |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **appoint** | present · perfect | God | Asshur |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיִּשָּׂ֥א מְשָׁל֖וֹ וַיֹּאמַ֑ר א֕וֹי מִ֥י יִחְיֶ֖ה מִשֻּׂמ֥וֹ אֵֽל׃

[Numbers 24:23: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.24.23/)

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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:891` 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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