(Heb. tsebi), properly the gazelle (Arab. ghazal), permitted for food ( Deuteronomy 14:5 ; Compare Deuteronomy 12:15 Deuteronomy 12:22 ; 15:22 ; 1 Kings 4:23 ), noted for its swiftness and beauty and grace of form ( 2 Samuel 2:18 ; 1 Chronicles 12:8 ; Cant 2:9 ; 7:3 ; 8:14 ).
The gazelle (Gazella dorcas) is found in great numbers in Palestine. "Among the gray hills of Galilee it is still 'the roe upon the mountains of Bether,' and I have seen a little troop of gazelles feeding on the Mount of Olives close to Jerusalem itself" (Tristram).
The Hebrew word ('ayyalah) in Proverbs 5: : 19 thus rendered (RSV, "doe"), is properly the "wild she-goat," the mountain goat, the ibex. (See 1 Samuel 24:2 ; Psalms 104:18 ; Job 39:1 .)