פָּרָה
cow
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Absolute-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms
- Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute 17 times (65%)
- Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 7 times (27%)
- Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct 1 time (4%)
- Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 1 time (4%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 26 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H6510 appears — 22 distinct verses across 7 books. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Genesis 9 verses
- Genesis 32:15 פָּר֤וֹת n c fp thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty she-donkeys and ten foals.
- Genesis 41:2 פָּר֔וֹת n c fp Behold, there came up out of the river seven cattle, well-favored and fat-fleshed, and they fed in the reed-grass.
- Genesis 41:3 פָּר֣וֹת הַ/פָּר֖וֹת n c fp ptcl def.art + n c fp Behold, seven other cattle came up after them out of the river, ill-favored and lean-fleshed, and stood by the other cattle on the brink of the river.
- Genesis 41:4 הַ/פָּר֗וֹת הַ/פָּר֔וֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp ptcl def.art + n c fp The ill-favored and lean-fleshed cattle ate up the seven well-favored and fat cattle. So Pharaoh awoke.
- Genesis 41:18 פָּר֔וֹת n c fp and, behold, there came up out of the river seven cattle, fat-fleshed and well-favored. They fed in the reed-grass,
- Genesis 41:19 פָּר֤וֹת n c fp and, behold, seven other cattle came up after them, poor and very ill-favored and lean-fleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for ugliness.
- Genesis 41:20 הַ/פָּר֔וֹת הַ/פָּר֛וֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp ptcl def.art + n c fp The lean and ill-favored cattle ate up the first seven fat cattle,
- Genesis 41:26 פָּרֹ֣ת n c fp The seven good cattle are seven years; and the seven good heads of grain are seven years. The dream is one.
- Genesis 41:27 הַ֠/פָּרוֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp The seven lean and ill-favored cattle that came up after them are seven years, and also the seven empty heads of grain blasted with the east wind; they will be seven years of famine.
Numbers 5 verses
- Numbers 19:2 פָרָ֨ה n c fs This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no blemish, [and] on which never came yoke.
- Numbers 19:5 הַ/פָּרָ֖ה ptcl def.art + n c fs One shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn:
- Numbers 19:6 הַ/פָּרָֽה ptcl def.art + n c fs and the priest shall take cedar-wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.
- Numbers 19:9 הַ/פָּרָ֔ה ptcl def.art + n c fs A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up outside of the camp in a clean place; and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water for impurity: it is a sin-offering.
- Numbers 19:10 הַ/פָּרָה֙ ptcl def.art + n c fs He who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: and it shall be to the children of Israel, and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them, for a statute forever.
1 Samuel 4 verses
- 1 Samuel 6:7 פָרוֹת֙ הַ/פָּרוֹת֙ n c fp ptcl def.art + n c fp Now therefore take and prepare yourselves a new cart, and two milk cattle, on which there has come no yoke; and tie the cattle to the cart, and bring their calves home from them;
- 1 Samuel 6:10 פָרוֹת֙ n c fp The men did so, and took two milk cattle, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home;
- 1 Samuel 6:12 הַ/פָּר֜וֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp The cattle took the straight way by the way to Beth-shemesh; they went along the highway, lowing as they went, and didn't turn aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth-shemesh.
- 1 Samuel 6:14 הַ֨/פָּר֔וֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp The cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they split the wood of the cart, and offered up the cattle for a burnt offering to Yahweh.
Job 1 verse
Isaiah 1 verse
Hosea 1 verse
Amos 1 verse
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, פרה (pârâh) means “cow.” Older and newer Bibles part ways — “kine” in the King James Version, “cows” (Berean Standard Bible) in modern versions. See the renderings breakdown. It turns up in 22 verses across 7 books, an uncommon footprint. The word gravitates to Genesis (41%), then Numbers and 1 Samuel. Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 32:15. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H6510 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 22
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 22 distinct verses.
- 7 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 7 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,251
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,251 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 22 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 22 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 14 verses · 64%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 7 verses · 32%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 1 verse · 5%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 4 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Kine 16×, Heifer 6×, Cow 2×
- American Standard Version†: Kine 14×, Heifer 6×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Cows 18×, Heifer 6×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Cows 16×, Cow 8×, The 6×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6510 across 26† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H6510 across 26† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H6510 across 26† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H6510 across 33† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
7 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each.
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 7 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
פרה I bear fruit, be fruitful (NH = BH 1, פְּרִי = BH
Qal
- Pf. 3 pl. פָּרוּ Ex 1:7; 1 pl. consec. וּפָרִינוּ Gn 26:22, etc.; Impf. 3 ms. יִפְרֶה Is 11:1, etc.; Imv. ms. פְּרֵה Gn 35:11, mpl. פְּרוּ 1:22 +; Pt. act. פֹּרֶה Dt 29:17, f. פֹּרִיָּה Ez 19:10 Is 17:6, פֹּרָת (Ges§ 80 g; for *פֹּרַיַת LagBN 81) Gn 49:22(×2);— e.g. Exodus 1:7
- 1. of men and animals, Ex 23:30 (E) Gn 26:22 (J); especially + רבה Je 3:16; 23:3 Ez 36:11; Gn 35:11; 47:27 (P), and שָׁרַץ (P) Gn 8:17; 9:7; Ex 1:7, פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ וּמִלְאוּ וגו׳ Gn 1:22, 28; 9:1. e.g. Exodus 23:30
- 2. of vine, גֶּפֶן פֹּרִיָּה Is 32:12 fruitful vine, so ψ 128:3 (sim. of wife); cf. (in fig. of Isr.) Ez 19:10; in Mess. prediction Is 11:1 a shoot from his [Jesse’s] roots shall bear fruit; c. acc. שֹׁרֶשׁ פ׳ רֹאשׁ fig., Dt 29:17 a root bearing gall (as its fruit); יִפְרוּ יֶשַׁע Is 45:8 is dub., read perhaps 3 fs. תֵּפֶר let earth be fruitful in salvation (Oort al.); Pt. f., as subst., הַפֹּרִיָּה the fruit-bearer, poet. for tree, Is 17:6 (cf. [סָעִיף] 2); so בֵּן פֹּרָת Gn 49:22(×2) Joseph is son of a fruit-bearer, i.e. a fruitful bough. e.g. Isaiah 32:12
Hiphil
- 1. cause to bear fruit, 2. make fruitful, subj. י׳, c. acc. of man or people:
- 1. Pf. 3 ms. sf. הִפְרַנִי Gn 41:52 (E). e.g. Genesis 41:52
- 2. in P, וְהִפְרֵתִ֫י Gn 17:6, 20 (-רֵיתֵ֫י), + הִרְבָּה Lv 26:9 (H); Impf. 3 ms. juss. יַפְרְךָ וְיַרְבְּךָ Gn 28:3, וַיֶּפֶר ψ 105:24; Pt. הִנְנִי מַפְרְךָ וְהִרְבִּיתִךָ Gn 48:4 e.g. Genesis 17:6
- 3. shew fruitfulness, bear fruit (Ges§ 53 c, d, g): Impf. 3 ms. יַפְרִיא Ho 13:15 (as if from פרא). e.g. Hosea 13:15
פרה II heifer, cow
פרה III loc. in Benj., הַפּ׳ Jos 18
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
I. vb. bear fruit, be fruitful (NH = BH 1, פְּרִי = BH; Ph. פר fruit; Ethiopic ፈርየ: ፈረየ: blossom, bear fruit; Assyrian pirʾu, posterity; cf. also 𝔗 פֵּירָא, Syriac ܦܶܐܪܳܐ fruit, and BaZMG xii (1887), 604);—
III. n.f. heifer, cow;—abs. פ׳ Is 11:7 +; sf. פָּרָתוֹ Jb 21:10; pl. פָּרוֹת Gn 32:16 +, פָּרֹת 41:26; cstr. פָּרוֹת Am 4:1;—as gift Gn 32:16; in Pharaoh’s dream 41:2, 3(×2) + 8 times 41; drawing cart 1 S 6:7, 12, 14 + פ׳ עָלוֹת v 7, 10 cows giving suck, milch cows; פ׳ calving Jb 21:10, grazing Is 11:7; פ׳ אֲדֻמָּה red heifer Nu 19:2, cf. v 5, 6, 9, 10; sim. of stubbornness Ho 4:16; פָּרוֹת הַבָּשָׁן Am 4:1, fig. of luxurious women.
IV. n.pr.loc. in Benj., הַפּ׳ Jos 18:23, Φαρα, Αφρα.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from פר (par) (H6499) — bullock.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
פָּרָה I
- cow, v. פָּר.
פָּרָה II
- to be fruitful, v. פרי.
פָּרָה III
- , v. פָּרָא II
פרי
- [to break through,] to grow, increase, be fruitful. Gitt. 57ᵃ כלומר פְּרוּ ורבו וכ׳ intimating, ‘multiply and increase like chickens’. Num. R. s. 11 את פְּרֵה ורבה לגוי גדול be thou fruitful and grow to be a great nation. Ib. כל מה … היה פָּרֶה ורבה whatever existed in the Temple grew and increased (v. פַּרְוַיִם). Ḥag. 16ᵃ פָּרִין ורבין כבני אדם they increase by propagation like human beings. Ḥull. 92ᵃ (ref. to כפרחת, Gen. XL, 10) הגיע לִפְרוֹת ולרבות … the time has come for Israel to grow and increase (as a nation); a. fr. e.g. Genesis 40:10
- 1. to cause to grow, make fruitful. Ber. 40ᵃ דגים קטנים מַפְרִין ומרבין ומברין כל גופו וכ׳ (Ms. M. מפרין ומרבין גופו וכ׳) small fish make fruitful (increase the sexual vigor) and strengthen the whole body of man; ib. 57ᵇ מפרין ומברין (Ms. M. מפרין ומרבין); Ab. Zar. 29ᵃ מפרין ומרבין (read: ומַבְרִין); a. e.—[
- 2. to increase the rent above the original stipulation in consideration of a loan, v. פָּרַז. B. Mets. V, 5 (69ᵇ) מפרין על שדהו ואין חוששין וכ׳ Ar. (Y. ed. ואין חושש—which indicates that מפרין is singular, fr. פָּרַן q. v.).]
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 21 distinct written forms H6510 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H6510, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 22 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 22 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
