Easton's Bible Dictionary: M. G. Easton, M.A., D.D.

Roe

(Heb.tsebi), properly the gazelle (Arab. ghazal), permitted for food (Dt. 14:5; comp. Dt. 12:15, 22, 15:22; 1 Ki. 4:23), noted for its swiftness and beauty and grace of form (2 Sam. 2:18; 1 Chr. 12:8; Song 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 Pr. 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.)