fallow-deer Summary and Overview

Deut. 14:5 (R.V., "Wild goat"); 1 Kings 4:23 (R.V., "roebucks"). This animal, called in Hebrew "yahmur", from a word meaning "to be red," is regarded by some as the common fallow-deer, the Cervus dama, which is said to be found very generally over Western and Southern Asia. It is called "fallow" from its pale-red or yellow colour. Some interpreters, however, regard the name as designating the bubale, Antelope bubale, the "wild cow" of North Africa, which is about the size of a stag, like the hartebeest of South Africa. A species of deer has been found at Mount Carmel which is called "yahmur" by the Arabs. It is said to be similar to the European roebuck.

FAL'LOW-DEER . "Deer" is The Bubale, or Fallow-Deer of Scripture. (After Wood.) a general name of a class of quadrupeds, as the stag, fallow-deer, reindeer, elk, etc., but the animal is never mentioned by this generic name in the Bible. The deer mentioned in 1 Kgs 4:23 was, by the Levitical law, a clean animal. Deut 14:5. It was formerly supposed to be the European red deer, called fallow from its pale-red or yellow color. Tristram and other late authorities make it the bubale (Alcelaphus bubalis) or "wild cow" of the Arabs. This deer, from its heavy, calf-like build, was classed by Orientals among cattle. It was valued for its venison, is still found in northern Africa and Arabia, and probably once dwelt in Palestine. Lieut. Conder has recently found a kind of deer in the vicinity of Mount Carmel which is called by the Arabs yachmur -- precisely the Hebrew word translated "fallow-deer." Naturalists who have examined the skin which Lieut. Conder brought to England state that this animal does not differ perceptibly from the European roebuck, which is therefore seemingly the animal that furnished Solomon's table with choice venison. See Roe.