TO SOW — the ordinary farmer's verb, and the root behind zera, seed or offspring. It runs through the third day of creation, where the earth brings forth ‘plants bearing seed’ (Genesis 1:11, already on these pages), and through the sowing-seed exemption in the purity laws (Leviticus 11:37). ⚠ Its strangest use gives a whole Torah portion its name: tazria, a causative form, opens Leviticus 12 (already on these pages) of a WOMAN — literally ‘when a woman produces seed and bears a male.’ KJV and ASV keep it (‘conceived seed’); NIV and NWT smooth it to ‘becomes pregnant’, and on the Spanish shelf only TNM footnotes the literal sense. Keeping it puts the woman grammatically where Genesis 1 puts the earth. → first discussed at Lev 12:2