---
title: Numbers 3:4 (JPS 1917) — And Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD, when they offered strange… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD, when they offered strange fire before the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children; and Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest's office in the presence of Aaron their father. Who acts: Nadab, Eleazar. Numbers 3:4 in JPS 1917 with its 
---

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# Numbers 3:4 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD, when they offered strange fire before the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children; and Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest's office in the presence of Aaron their father.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Nadab, Eleazar · **What happens:** die, offer, have, minister · **To what, where:** strange fire, wilderness, children, office

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Numbers 3:4 · 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 (Nadab, Eleazar), 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:91
# text = And Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD, when they offered strange fire before the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children; and Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest's office in the presence of Aaron their father.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	Nadab	Nadab	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	Abihu	Abihu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
5	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	before	before	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	12	mark	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	offered	offer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
13	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	before	before	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	wilderness	wilderness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	Sinai	Sinai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
28	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	29	det	_	_
29	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
30	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
32	Eleazar	Eleazar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	Ithamar	Ithamar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	conj	_	_
35	ministered	minister	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	priest	priest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nmod:poss	_	_
39	's	's	PART	POS	_	38	case	_	_
40	office	office	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
41	in	in	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	presence	presence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
44	of	of	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
45	Aaron	Aaron	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	43	nmod	_	_
46	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	47	nmod:poss	_	_
47	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	appos	_	_
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	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 | **die** | past | Nadab and Abihu |  |  |  | before the LORD |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 2 | **offer** | past | Nadab | strange fire |  | the wilderness of Sinai | before the LORD |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent fire=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | past | Nadab | no children |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient |
| 4 | **minister** | past | Eleazar and Ithamar |  |  | the priest's office |  | in the presence of Aaron | 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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
וַיָּ֣מָת נָדָ֣ב וַאֲבִיה֣וּא לִפְנֵ֣י יְהוָ֡ה בְּֽהַקְרִבָם֩ אֵ֨שׁ זָרָ֜ה לִפְנֵ֤י יְהוָה֙ בְּמִדְבַּ֣ר סִינַ֔י וּבָנִ֖ים לֹא־הָי֣וּ לָהֶ֑ם וַיְכַהֵ֤ן אֶלְעָזָר֙ וְאִ֣יתָמָ֔ר עַל־פְּנֵ֖י אַהֲרֹ֥ן אֲבִיהֶֽם׃פ

[Numbers 3:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.3.4/)

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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:91` 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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