Bible Dictionary

Chamois

Only in Deut. 14:5 (Heb. zemer), an animal of the deer or gazelle species. It bears this Hebrew name from its leaping or springing. The animal intended is probably the wild sheep (Ovis tragelephus), …

Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)

Only in Deut. 14:5 (Heb. zemer), an animal of the deer or gazelle species. It bears this Hebrew name from its leaping or springing. The animal intended is probably the wild sheep (Ovis tragelephus), which is still found in Sinai and in the broken ridges of Stony Arabia. The LXX. , the giraffe; but this is an animal of Central Africa, and is not at all known in Syria.

Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)

(pronounced often shame), the translation of the Hebrew zemer in (14:5) But the translation is incorrect; for there is no evidence that the chamois have ever been seen in Palestine or the Lebanon. It is probable that some mountain sheep is intended.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898) & Schaff's Bible Dictionary

CHAM'OIS (pronounced sham'my). Deut 14:5. The true chamois is believed never to have lived in Arabia or Palestine. It is now thought that this animal of the Bible was a species of wild sheep (Ovis tragelephus) formerly abundant among the mountains of Sinai, but now apparently confined to Africa.