אַיָּל
ay.yal
deer
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
ExploredThe Hebrew word 'אַיָּל (ayyal) has a concise and specific meaning: deer. It is classified in the semantic domain of Animals & Creatures, indicating its primary classification in the biblical lexicon as an animal. This word is used a total of 11 times in the Bible, suggesting it has some significance within the text. Considering its definition, it is likely that 'ayyal is used in descriptive passages or in the context of the natural world. Its use may be found in descriptions of hunting, animal husbandry, or the natural environment. However, without further lexical analysis, it is difficult to pinpoint the precise contexts in which 'ayyal is used. As a word with a clear and specific meaning, 'ayyal contributes to the richness and variety of the biblical lexicon. Its use of 11 times in the text suggests a certain level of importance or relevance to the narrative, but the significance of 'ayyal remains a matter of further lexical analysis and contextual study.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
11 total occurrences across the text
As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God.
Song of Solomon 2:9My beloved is like a roe or a young deer. Behold, he stands behind our wall! He looks in at the windows. He glances through the lattice.
Song of Solomon 2:17Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.
Song of Solomon 8:14Come away, my beloved! Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices!
Isaiah 35:6Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
Lamentations 1:6All majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture. They have gone without strength before the pursuer.
Deuteronomy 12:15Yet you may kill and eat meat within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to Yahweh your God’s blessing which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and the deer.
Deuteronomy 12:22Even as the gazelle and as the deer is eaten, so you shall eat of it. The unclean and the clean may eat of it alike.
Deuteronomy 14:5the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the chamois.
Deuteronomy 15:22You shall eat it within your gates. The unclean and the clean shall eat it alike, as the gazelle and as the deer.
1 Kings 4:23ten head of fat cattle, twenty head of cattle out of the pastures, and one hundred sheep, in addition to deer, and gazelles, and roebucks, and fattened fowl.