Chamois

The chamois (Hebrew zemer) appears in Deuteronomy 14:5 among the clean animals that Israel was permitted to eat. It is listed alongside the deer, gazelle, roebuck, and ibex in the group of hoofed wild animals. The precise identification is uncertain: the chamois as known in Europe does not inhabit Palestine, and the Hebrew term may refer to a mountain sheep, ibex, or wild goat native to the rocky highlands of the region. The Septuagint rendered it as camelopardalis (giraffe), which is also problematic geographically, and most modern translations prefer mountain sheep or simply transliterate the term.