--- title: Numbers 3:12 (JPS 1917) — 'And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of… · tree and pragmatics description: 'And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of every first-born that openeth the womb among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be Mine; Who acts: I, first born, Levites. Numbers 3:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.99/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Torah](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/) / [Numbers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM/) / [chapter 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM/3/) / [3:12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.3.12/) / JPS 1 # Numbers 3:12 · JPS 1917 'And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of every first-born that openeth the womb among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be Mine; **Who acts:** I, first born, Levites · **What happens:** take, open, be · **To what, where:** Levites, womb, Mine This is Numbers 3:12 · 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 (I, first born, Levites), 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:99 # text = 'And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of every first-born that openeth the womb among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be Mine; 1 ' ' PUNCT `` _ 9 punct _ _ 2 And and CCONJ CC _ 9 cc _ _ 3 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 9 nsubj _ _ 4 , , PUNCT , _ 9 punct _ _ 5 behold behold INTJ UH _ 9 discourse _ _ 6 , , PUNCT , _ 5 punct _ _ 7 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 9 nsubj _ _ 8 have have AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 9 aux _ _ 9 taken take VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 0 root _ _ 10 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 11 Levites Levites PROPN NNPS Number=Plur 9 obj _ _ 12 from from ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 13 among among ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 14 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 15 det _ _ 15 children child NOUN NNS Number=Plur 9 obl _ _ 16 of of ADP IN _ 17 case _ _ 17 Israel Israel PROPN NNP Number=Sing 15 nmod _ _ 18 instead instead ADV RB ExtPos=ADP 23 case _ _ 19 of of ADP IN _ 18 fixed _ _ 20 every every DET DT PronType=Tot 23 det _ _ 21 first first ADJ JJ Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord 23 amod _ _ 22 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 21 punct _ _ 23 born born NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obl _ _ 24 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 25 nsubj _ _ 25 openeth open VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 23 acl:relcl _ _ 26 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 27 det _ _ 27 womb womb NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 obj _ _ 28 among among ADP IN _ 30 case _ _ 29 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 30 children child NOUN NNS Number=Plur 25 obl _ _ 31 of of ADP IN _ 32 case _ _ 32 Israel Israel PROPN NNP Number=Sing 30 nmod _ _ 33 ; ; PUNCT : _ 39 punct _ _ 34 and and CCONJ CC _ 39 cc _ _ 35 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 36 det _ _ 36 Levites Levites PROPN NNPS Number=Plur 39 nsubj _ _ 37 shall shall AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 39 aux _ _ 38 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 39 cop _ _ 39 Mine mine PRON PRP Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 9 conj _ _ 40 ; ; PUNCT : _ 9 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} - form: statement - act: assert - voice: character - polarity: none - teacher: kept the draft | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **take** | present · perfect | I | the Levites | | | | from the children of Israel; instead every first born | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent levites=Theme from child=Initial\_Location | | 2 | **open** | present | every first born | the womb | | | | among the children of Israel | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent womb=Theme among child=Location | | 3 | **is a** | shall | the Levites | Mine | | | | | tree rules | 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} וַאֲנִ֞י הִנֵּ֧ה לָקַ֣חְתִּי אֶת־הַלְוִיִּ֗ם מִתּוֹךְ֙ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל תַּ֧חַת כָּל־בְּכ֛וֹר פֶּ֥טֶר רֶ֖חֶם מִבְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וְהָ֥יוּ לִ֖י הַלְוִיִּֽם׃ [Numbers 3:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.3.12/) **Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:NUM:99` 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. - ← previous: [Numbers 3:11 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.98/) - next →: [Numbers 3:13 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.100/) - ↑ back to [Numbers 3:12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.3.12/)