Bible Dictionaries
Roe

Easton's Bible Dictionary

(Heb. tsebi), properly the gazelle (Arab. ghazal), permitted for food (Deuteronomy 14:5; Compare Deuteronomy 12:15,22; 15:22; 1 Kings 4:23 ), noted for its swiftness and beauty and grace of form (2 Samuel 2:18; 1 Chronicles 12:8; Song of Solomon 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; Psalm 104:18; Job 39:1 .)