chamois Summary and Overview

only in Deut. 14:5 (Heb. zemer), an animal of the deer or gazelle species. It bears this Hebrew name from its leaping or springing. The animal intended is probably the wild sheep (Ovis tragelephus), which is still found in Sinai and in the broken ridges of Stony Arabia. The LXX. and Vulgate render the word by camelopardus, i.e., the giraffe; but this is an animal of Central Africa, and is not at all known in Syria.

(pronounced often shame), the translation of the Hebrew zemer in #De 14:5| But the translation is incorrect; for there is no evidence that the chamois have ever been seen in Israel or the Lebanon. It is probable that some mountain sheep is intended.

CHAM'OIS (pronounced sham'my). Deut 14:5. The true chamois is believed never to have lived in Arabia or Palestine. It is now thought that this animal of the Bible was a species of wild sheep (Ovis tragelephus) formerly abundant among the mountains of Sinai, but now apparently confined to Africa.

Zemer, from zaamar to leap. Allowed as clean food (Deuteronomy 14:5). The giraffe according to Gosse, (from the Arabic version and the Septuagint). The objection is, the giraffe is not a native of Israel; but it is of Nubia, and may have been of the Arabian peninsula at the Exodus. Clearly it is not the chamois found only on high peaks of the Alps, auras, and Caucasus. It may be some other species of antelope. Colossians Smith suggests the aoudad mountain sheep. The Syriac has "the mountain goat."