Fallow-Deer

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FALLOW-DEER.—This word occurs in the AV [Note: Authorized Version.] among the clean animals (Deu_14:5), and in the list of game furnished for Solomon’s daily table (1Ki_4:23). In each list ’ayyâl, zĕbî, and yachmûr occur in the same order. The first is correctly translated, in both AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] , ‘hart’ (see Hart). The second is incorrectly tr. [Note: translate or translation.] in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘roebuck,’ and correctly in RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘gazelle’ (see Gazelle). The third is incorrectly tr. [Note: translate or translation.] in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘fallow-deer,’ and correctly in RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘roebuck’ (see Roe, Roebuck).
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909



The original terms Ajal and Ajalah are rendered in our common version by the names hart and hind (Deu_12:15; Psa_42:1; Isa_35:6; Gen_49:21; 2Sa_22:34; Job_39:1; Psa_18:33; Pro_5:19; Son_2:7; Jer_14:5; Hab_3:19).
Sir J.G. Wilkinson believes Ajal to be the Ethiopian oryx, with nearly straight horns. But an Ethiopian species could not well be meant where the clean animals fit for the food of Hebrews are pointed out, nor where allusion is made to suffering from thirst, and to high and rocky places as the refuge of females, or of both, since all the species of oryx inhabit the open plains, and are not remarkable for the desire of drinking; nor can either of these propensities be properly ascribed to the true antelopes, or gazelles, of Arabia and Syria, all being residents of the plain and the desert; like the oryges, often seen at immense distances from water, and unwilling to venture into forests, where their velocity of flight and delicacy of structure impede and destroy them. Animals of the stag kind prefer the security of forests, are always most robust in rocky mountain covers, and seek water with considerable anxiety; for of all the light-footed ruminants, they alone protrude the tongue when hard pressed in the chase. Now, comparing these qualities with several texts, we find them perfectly appropriate to the species of these genera alone.
The first species here referred to is now known by the name of Cervus Barbarus, or Barbary stag, in size between our red and fallow deer, distinguished by the want of a bisantler, or second branch on the horns, reckoning from below, and a spotted livery, which is effaced only in the third or fourth year. This species is figured on Egyptian monuments, is still occasionally seen about the Natron lakes west of the Nile, and, it seems, was observed by a reverend friend in the desert east of the Dead Sea on his route from Cairo towards Damascus. We take this to be the Igial or Ajal of the Arabs, the same which they accuse of eating fish?that is, the seps, lizards, and snakes, a propensity common to other species, and similarly ascribed to the Virginian and Mexican deer.
The other is the Persian stag, or Maral of the Tahtar nations, and Gewazen of Armenia, larger than the stag of Europe, clothed with a heavy mane, and likewise destitute of bisantlers. We believe this species to be the Soegur of Asiatic Turkey, and many of the Arabs, therefore, residing on the borders of the mountain forests of Syria and Palestine. One or both of these species were dedicated to the local bona dea on Mount Libanus?a kind of proof that deer were found in the vicinity.
Of the hind it is unnecessary to say more than that she is the female of stag, or hart, and that in the manners of these animals the males always are the last to hurry into cover.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Fallow-deer
(יִחְמוּר, yachmur'; Sept. βούβαλος [but δορκάς in 1 Kings], Vulg. bubalus), mentioned among the beasts that may be eaten in Deu_14:5, and among the provisions for Solomon's table in 1Ki_4:23 [Heb_5:3]. There are three animals of the Cervidae family with which different writers have identified it. SEE ZOOLOGY.
1. Most commentators (following Bochart, Hieroz. 1:910; 2:260) regard it as properly translated in our version, deriving the word from חָמִר, chamar', in the sense of being red, and thus referring it to a species of deer of a reddish color; probably the Cervus dama of Linnaeus, originally a native of Barbary, where it is still found wild. It is stated to be found very generally dispersed over Western and Southern Asia, and is said to have been introduced into England from Norway (see Penny Cyclopcedia, s.v. Deer). It is smaller than the stag (Cervus elaphus), having horns or branches serrated on the inside, which it sheds annually. The color in winter is a darkish brown, but in summer bay, spotted with white. The fallow-deer. (Cervus dama) is deemed by most authorities to be undoubtedly a native of Asia; indeed, Persia seems to be its proper country. Hasselquist (Trav. page 211) noticed this deer in Mount Tabor. Oedmann (Verm. Samml. 1:178) likewise believes that the yachmur is best denoted by the Cervus dama. The female is called in the Talmud יִחְמוּרָא, and is identified by Lewysohn with the German Damhirsch. It is, however, lifficult to suppose that Jerusalem could have received my appreciable amount of flesh-meat from such a source, remote as it is from a forest country. SEE DEER.
2. Kitto (Pict. Bibl. Deuteronomy 1. c.) says, "The yachmur of the Hebrews is without doubt erroneously identified with the fallow-deer, which does not exist in Asia," and refers the name to the Oryx leucoryx, citing Niebuhr as authority for stating that this animal is known among the Eastern Arabs by the name of yazmur. This is the opinion which we have adopted, from Hamilton Smith, who is the best modern authority on such questions. SEE ANTELOPE
3. Still others, on the authority of the Septuagint rendering in Deuteronomy, regard the term as denoting "the Antilope bubalus (Pallas); the βούβαλος of the Greeks (see Herod. 4:192; Aristotle, Hist. Anim. 3:6, ed. Schneider, and De Part. Anim. 3:2, 11, edit. Bekker; Oppian, Cyn. 2:300). From the different descriptions of the yachmur as given by Arabian writers, and cited by Bochart (Hieroz. 2:284 sq.), it would also seem that this is the animal designated; though Damir's remarks in some respects are fabulous, and he represents the yachmur as having deciduous horns, which will not apply to any antelope. Still Cazuinus, according to Rosenmuller, identifies the yachmur with the bekker el-wmash ('wild cow'), which is the modern name in North Africa for the Antilope bubalus (see Shaw's Travels, page 242, and Suppl. page 75, fol.; Buffon, Hist. Natur. 12:294). The term bubalus evidently points to some animal having the general appearance of an ox. Pliny (N.H. 8:15) tells us that the common people, in their ignorance, sometimes gave this name to the Bison (Auroch) and the Urus. He adds, the animal properly so called is produced in Africa, and bears a resemblance to the calf and the stag; a middle position between the cervine and bovine ruminants that corresponds to the external appearance of the animal in question. The bekker el-wash appears to be depicted in the Egyptian monuments, SEE CHASE, where it is represented as being hunted for the sake of its flesh, which Shaw tells us (Suppl. p. 75) is very sweet and nourishing, much preferable to that of the red deer (see Wilkinson's Anc. Egypt. 1:223, figs. 3, 4, and page 225, fig. 19). This animal, which is about the size of a stag, is common in North Africa, and lives in herds." SEE WILD OX.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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