Hebrew word · H6646

צְבִיָּה

tzeviyah

gazelle

Gazelle. The female form (ṣəviyyāh) appears only in Song 4:5 and 7:3. The male form ṣəvî also means 'beauty' or 'glory' in other books (e.g. 2 Sam 1:19, 'Your glory, O Israel'; Isa 28:5; the 'beautiful land', Dan 8:9, 11:16).

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

gazelle, doe

Another spelling of tse.vi (צְבִי "gazelle" H6643B)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Song of Songs 7:3

Range of meaning

Gazelle. The female form (ṣəviyyāh) appears only in Song 4:5 and 7:3. The male form ṣəvî also means 'beauty' or 'glory' in other books (e.g. 2 Sam 1:19, 'Your glory, O Israel'; Isa 28:5; the 'beautiful land', Dan 8:9, 11:16). It is not settled whether these are one word or two words that sound alike.

Against the English

'Gazelle' is accurate. KJV and WEB say 'roe', which is a European deer and not the gazelle of the Levant.

How it drifted

The KJV translators used animals English readers knew. The roe deer was close enough, but it is a different animal.

Used elsewhere in the period

Gazelles were the most common wild hoofed animal of the southern Levant. Elsewhere they stand for speed (2 Sam 2:18, 1 Chr 12:8). In ancient Near Eastern art, and in Egyptian love poetry, gazelles and fawns are linked with love, charm and the renewal of life (Keel). In the Song the young women swear 'by the gazelles and the does of the field' (2:7, 3:5). The phrase is probably a play on the sound of divine titles (ṣəbāʾôt / ʾēl šaddāy).

Where it appears

Song of Songs · 2

  1. Song of Songs 4:5 צְבִיָּ֑ה a gazelle

    Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle grazing among the lilies.

    Here: A mother gazelle. In Israel the gazelle stood for grace, beauty and swift wildness (compare 2 Samuel 1:19, where ṣəbî means both "gazelle" and "glory"). The fawns are her twin young.

  2. Song of Songs 7:3 צְבִיָּֽה׃ a gazelle

    Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.

    Here: The female form of 'gazelle'. In the whole Bible it appears only here and in the twin verse 4:5. Gazelles stand for grace and beauty all through the Song. The young women are even put under oath 'by the gazelles' (2:7, 3:5).

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.