Meaning
Roe (Heb. tsebi), properly the gazelle (Arab. ghazal), permitted for food (Deut 14:5; comp. Deut 12:15, 22; 15:22; 1Kings 4:23), noted for its swiftness and beauty and grace of form (2Sam 2:18; 1Chr 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 See n a little troop of gazelles feeding on the Mount of Olives close to Jerusalem itself" (Tristram).
The Hebrew word ('ayyalah) in Prov 5: 19 thus rendered (R.V., "doe"), is properly the "wild she-goat," the mountain goat, the ibex. (See 1Sam 24:2; Ps 104:18; Job 39:1.)
