Deer

A wild animal with antlers that are shed yearly and has reddish fur with white spots in summer.

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Deer

About Deer

A deer is a large animal with hooves. It eats grass and plants in a special way (chews the cud). It swallows its food and then brings it back up later to chew it again. Deer were considered ritually clean to eat according to Jewish law.

Only male deer have antlers. These antlers grow each year and are solid. This is different from antelope and gazelle antlers. Fully grown antlers lack skin or horn coverings. Essentially, they are dead bone that living deer carry for a time.

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The animal itself Article

Habits, distribution, and how translators render the term across languages.

Key References

Deuteronomy 12:15

But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. Both the ceremonially clean and unclean may eat it as they would a gazelle or deer,

Psalm 42:2

My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When shall I come and appear in God’s presence?

Habakkuk 3:19

GOD the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer; He makes me walk upon the heights! For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments.

All Scripture References (22)

Genesis (1)
Genesis 49:21

Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns.

Deuteronomy (4)
Deuteronomy 12:15

But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. Both the ceremonially clean and unclean may eat it as they would a gazelle or deer,

Deuteronomy 12:22

Indeed, you may eat it as you would eat a gazelle or deer; both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it.

Deuteronomy 14:5

the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

Deuteronomy 15:22

Eat it within your gates; both the ceremonially unclean and clean may eat it as they would a gazelle or a deer.

2 Samuel (1)
2 Samuel 22:34

He makes my feet like those of a deer and stations me upon the heights.

1 Kings (1)
1 Kings 5:3

“As you are well aware, due to the wars waged on all sides against my father David, he could not build a house for the Name of the LORD his God until the LORD had put his enemies under his feet.

Job (1)
Job 39:1

“Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the doe bear her fawn?

Psalms (4)
Psalm 18:34

He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

Psalm 22:1

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?

Psalm 29:9

The voice of the LORD twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in His temple all cry, “Glory!”

Psalm 42:2

My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When shall I come and appear in God’s presence?

Proverbs (1)
Proverbs 5:19

A loving doe, a graceful fawn—may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.

Song of Solomon (5)
Song of Solomon 2:7

O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you by the gazelles and does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until the time is right.

Song of Solomon 2:9

My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.

Song of Solomon 2:17

Before the day breaks and shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bether.

Song of Solomon 3:5

O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you by the gazelles and does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until the time is right.

Song of Solomon 8:14

Come away, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

Isaiah (1)
Isaiah 35:6

Then the lame will leap like a deer and the mute tongue will shout for joy. For waters will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.

Jeremiah (1)
Jeremiah 14:5

Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass.

Lamentations (1)
Lamentations 1:6

All the splendor has departed from the Daughter of Zion. Her princes are like deer that find no pasture; they lack the strength to flee in the face of the hunter.

Habakkuk (1)
Habakkuk 3:19

GOD the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer; He makes me walk upon the heights! For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments.