Bible Dictionary
Roe
The roe was a gazelle or similar graceful antelope found in Palestine. Scripture associates it with beauty, swiftness, and grace, and lists it among animals permitted for food.
Definition
The “roe” is properly the gazelle, a graceful antelope permitted as food. It was valued for its beauty, swift movement, and graceful form. A related Hebrew word translated “doe” refers properly to the wild she-goat, or ibex.
Biblical Usage
The gazelle is listed among animals permitted for food and is used in descriptions of swiftness, beauty, grace, and longing. The doe or ibex is associated with the mountain regions in the passages where that related term occurs.
Historical Background
The gazelle was found in great numbers in Palestine, including Galilee and the Mount of Olives. The gazelle of the biblical material is identified with Gazella dorcas.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
(Heb. tsebi), properly the gazelle (Arab. ghazal), permitted for food (Deut. 14:5; comp. Deut. 12:15, 22; 15:22; 1 Kings 4:23), noted for its swiftness and beauty and grace of form (2 Sam. 2:18; 1 Chr. 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 Prov. 5: 19 thus rendered (R.V., “doe”), is properly the “wild she-goat,” the mountain goat, the ibex. (See 1 Sam. 24:2; Ps. 104:18; Job 39:1.)