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How could we know if

פרה אדמה

in Num 19:2 refers either to

  • a red cow (parah edumah)
  • vs a cow of the soil (parah adamah)?

I would like someone to analyse the issue morphologically, grammatically, etymologically relative to Torah as a whole.

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Certainly, I should write "cow of soil" rather than "cow of the soil". However, in English, writing "the soil" would negate the possibility of involvement of cow soil. – Blessed Geek Dec 25 '12 at 19:43

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If it meant "cow of soil," פרה would need to be in the genitive, and thus פרת. I don't think the genitive inflection of that word even occurs in scripture.

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Seconded. If OP were asking about a cow made out of soil (soil being an adjective) then there'd be more uncertainty, but noun chains ("noun noun" meaning "noun of noun") use the genitive and are thus distinguishable from "noun adjective". – Monica Cellio Dec 26 '12 at 3:04
You are right. Still researching on the question. Will come back later to clarify. Later means, probably in 2 months'. – Blessed Geek Jan 6 at 6:24

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