H6643 — צְבִי (ṣəḇî / tsebi)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H6643
Original: צְבִי
Transliteration: ṣəḇî (tsebi)
Pronunciation: tseb-ee'
Part of Speech: Masculine noun
Root: from a root in the sense of prominence; cognate with verb צָבָה (tsabah) "to swell up" → splendor; the gazelle-sense comes from the same root (the gazelle as "prominent/graceful" animal)
Occurrences: 32 unique verses (34 tokens) in 10 books
First Occurrence: Deut 12:15 — "… as the roebuck (ṣəḇî), and as the hart"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From a root in the sense of prominence; splendor (as conspicuous): — beautiful(-ty), glorious(-ry), goodly, pleasant, roe(-buck).

Note on homonymy: Standard Hebrew lexica (BDB, HALOT) treat ṣəḇî as two distinct homonymous nouns that share the same form but differ in meaning: 1. ṣəḇî I = "beauty, splendor, glory, honor" (abstract; object of desire / pride / glory) 2. ṣəḇî II = "gazelle, roe, roebuck" (the animal — named either because it is "beautiful/graceful" or from a separate root of similar form)

Strong's collapses them under one entry ("splendor, as conspicuous"). The KJV translation distribution reflects both senses, with context determining which is in view.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Count	%
glory / the glory / of glory	8	25.0%
glorious / the glorious	5	15.6%
beauty / the beauty / beautiful	4	12.5%
roe / as a roe / to a roe / as the roe(s)	9	28.1%
roebuck / the roebuck / as the roebuck / as of the roebuck	5	15.6%
roebucks / and roebucks	1	3.1%
pleasant / the pleasant	1	3.1%
goodly	1	3.1%

Split: Roughly half the verses use ṣəḇî as "beauty/glory" (~16v) and half as "roe/roebuck/gazelle" (~16v). Context governs.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Daniel	4	1.1
Isaiah	8	0.6
Deuteronomy	4	0.4
Ezekiel	5	0.4
2 Samuel	2	0.3
1 Kings	1	0.1
1 Chronicles	1	0.1
Proverbs	1	0.1
Jeremiah	1	0.1

Patterns: Highest density in Daniel (all 4 uses = "glorious" of a land/mountain). Isaiah dominates the "glory/beauty" sense as prophetic-judgment imagery. Deuteronomy uses the gazelle sense exclusively (clean-animal food law). Song of Songs uses a related form 5x for the male lover (tallied under H6643 lemma by some counts; KJV there uses different English). Conspicuously absent from Pentateuch apart from Deut food-laws — never used of the tabernacle / priestly glory (those use kabod H3519 and tiphereth H8597).

Semantic Categories¶

1. The Gazelle / Roebuck (the animal — ṣəḇî II)¶

Clean, edible, swift-footed wild ruminant. Food-law texts + poetic similes of swiftness. - Deut 12:15 — "thou mayest eat… as the roebuck (ṣəḇî), and as the hart" - Deut 14:5 — listed among clean game animals - 2 Sam 2:18 — "Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe (ṣəḇî)" (swiftness) - Prov 6:5 — "Deliver thyself as a roe (ṣəḇî) from the hand of the hunter" - Isa 13:14 — "as the chased roe (ṣəḇî)" (hunted fugitive imagery) - 1 Kings 4:23 — Solomon's table provisions: "harts, and roebucks, and fallowdeer"

2. Beauty / Splendor as a Quality (ṣəḇî I — abstract)¶

Conspicuous splendor attaching to persons, cities, or nations — often ironically, as what will fall. - 2 Sam 1:19 — "The beauty (ṣəḇî) of Israel is slain upon thy high places" (David over Saul/Jonathan) - Isa 4:2 — "the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious (ṣəḇî)" - Isa 28:1 — Ephraim's "glorious (ṣəḇî) beauty is a fading flower" - Isa 28:4–5 — LORD himself becomes "a crown of glory (ṣəḇî)" to the remnant (reversal of 28:1) - Ezek 7:20 — "the beauty (ṣəḇî) of his ornament, he set it in majesty" (Temple ornaments turned to idols)

3. Glory of a Pagan City / Kingdom (marked for judgment)¶

Applied to Gentile imperial pride that God will overthrow. - Isa 13:19 — "Babylon, the glory (ṣəḇî) of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency" - Isa 23:9 — "to stain the pride of all glory (ṣəḇî)" (Tyre oracle) - Ezek 25:9 — Moab's frontier cities called the "glory (ṣəḇî) of the country" - Ezek 26:20 — Tyre: "I shall set glory (ṣəḇî) in the land of the living" (removed from her)

4. The Glorious / Pleasant Land (Israel / Promised Land / Jerusalem)¶

ṣəḇî collocated with ʼerets (land) or har (mountain) as a title for the covenant land — specifically as the land God gave Israel, distinguished from surrounding territories. - Jer 3:19 — "give thee a pleasant (ṣəḇî) land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations" - Ezek 20:6 — "to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land… flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory (ṣəḇî) of all lands" - Ezek 20:15 — same phrase repeated: "the glory (ṣəḇî) of all lands" - Dan 8:9 — the little horn waxes great "toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land (hāṣ-ṣəḇî, lit. 'the glory')" - Dan 11:16 — "he shall stand in the glorious land (ʼereṣ-haṣ-ṣəḇî)" - Dan 11:41 — "he shall enter also into the glorious land (ʼereṣ haṣ-ṣəḇî)" - Dan 11:45 — "between the seas in the glorious holy mountain (har-ṣəḇî-qōḏeš)"

Text-internal referent: Ezek 20:6, 15 supplies the definitive identification — ṣəḇî of the land is explicitly the destination of the Exodus, "flowing with milk and honey," i.e., Canaan/Israel. Jer 3:19 parallels "pleasant land" with "goodly heritage," the covenant inheritance. Dan 11:45 locates the ṣəḇî at a "holy mountain" between the seas (Zion / Jerusalem). Within the Hebrew canon ṣəḇî + ʼerets / har-qodesh is a fixed designation for the covenant-land of Israel, with Zion/Jerusalem as its center.

5. Substantival Absolute (with definite article, location)¶

Dan 8:9's hāṣ-ṣəḇî stands alone ("toward the glory") without the word ʼerets. The parallel directional triplet — south, east, hāṣ-ṣəḇî — treats "the Glory [land]" as a fourth geographical term on the compass. Dan 11:16, 41, 45 then make the referent explicit by adding ʼerets or har. The elliptical Dan 8:9 usage is resolved text-internally by the fuller Dan 11 phrases and by Ezek 20:6, 15 / Jer 3:19.

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
אֶרֶץ ʼerets (land)	H776	11x (34%)	ʼereṣ haṣ-ṣəḇî — "land of the glory" / "glorious land" (Dan 11:16, 41; Ezek 20:6, 15; Jer 3:19)
אַיָּל ʼayâl (hart)	H354	8x (25%)	"as the hart and the ṣəḇî" — paired clean game animals (Deut 12:15, 22; 14:5; 15:22; 1 Ki 4:23)
תִּפְאָרָה tiphʼârâh (beauty/ornament)	H8597	5x (16%)	Isaiah pairing — "glorious beauty" ṣəḇî tiphʼereth (Isa 4:2; 28:1, 4, 5; Ezek 23:26)
גָּאוֹן gâʼôwn (pride/excellency)	H1347	4x (12%)	pagan-city glory paired with pride (Isa 13:19; 23:9; Ezek 7:20)
הַר har (mountain)	H2022	4x (12%)	har-ṣəḇî-qōḏeš "glorious holy mountain" (Dan 11:45); high places (2 Sam 1:19)
צָבָא tsâbâʼ (host)	H6635	4x (12%)	"hosts of nations" as antithesis to ṣəḇî land (Jer 3:19; etc.)
יְהֹוָה YHWH	H3068	4x (12%)	God as source of or claimant to the glory (Isa 4:2; 23:9; 28:5; Ezek 20:6)
דּוֹד dôwd (beloved)	H1730	3x (9%)	Song of Songs — male beloved likened to a ṣəḇî (gazelle sense)
דָּמָה dâmâh (be like)	H1819	3x (9%)	similes: "like a ṣəḇî" (Song of Songs, gazelle sense)

Word Family / Cognates¶

H6638 צָבָה (ṣāḇāh) — primitive root: "to amass, to array an army" / "to swell" (the likely root behind ṣəḇî I = "swelling/prominence → splendor")
H6629 צֹאן (tsoʼn) — flock (unrelated but phonetically near)
H6635 צָבָא (ṣāḇāʼ) — host, army (same root family as ṣāḇāh)

Synonyms¶

H355 אַיָּלָה (ʼayyalah) — doe / gazelle counterpart in the animal sense of ṣəḇî.
H1347 גָּאוֹן (gaʼown) — excellency / pride / glory; overlaps with the splendor sense.
H2532 חֶמְדָּה (chemdah) — pleasantness / desirability; fits the "pleasant land" usage.
H8597 תִּפְאָרָה (tiphʼarah) — beauty / glory / ornament; often paired with ṣəḇî in Isaiah.
H3519 כָּבוֹד (kabowd) — glory / honor; the weightier honor-glory term overlapping with ṣəḇî's abstract sense.
H3513 כבד — the weight/honor root behind kabowd; surfaced by search_relationships.py as a glory-field neighbor.

Antonyms¶

No antonyms returned by search_relationships.py for H6643.

Easily Confused Words — "Glory / Beauty"¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
כָּבוֹד kâbôwd	H3519	"glory" (44v)	Weighty, honor-glory; the dominant "glory" word; theophanic & royal. ṣəḇî is conspicuous splendor / desirability, often of places, rarely of God.
תִּפְאָרָה tiphʼârâh	H8597	"beauty, glory" (4v shared)	Ornamental adornment / crown-beauty; often paired with ṣəḇî (Isa 28:1, 4, 5) as a doublet.
הוֹד hôwd	H1935	"glory, majesty" (2v shared)	Royal splendor / vigor; used of kings, wild animals' vigor.
הֶדֶר heder	H1925	"honour"	Ornamental honor; rare.
אַדִּיר ʼaddîyr	H117	"glorious" (1v shared)	"Mighty, majestic"; strength-glory, not beauty.
יֳפִי yopî	H3308	"beauty"	Physical attractiveness / comeliness (human, royal); partial overlap with ṣəḇî I but never used of a land.
גָּאוֹן gâʼôwn	H1347	"excellency, pride"	Pride / exaltation — often the negative shadow of ṣəḇî (what will be stained, Isa 23:9).

Easily Confused Words — "Roe / Roebuck / Gazelle"¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
יַעֲלָה yaʻălâh	H3280	"roe"	Feminine — a female mountain-goat / wild doe; Prov 5:19.
אַיָּל ʼayâl	H354	"hart"	Stag / male deer; almost always paired with ṣəḇî in food-law lists but a distinct species.
אַיָּלָה ʼayyālāh	H355	"hind"	Female deer; poetic pair with ʼayâl.
יַחְמוּר yachmûr	H3180	"fallowdeer / roebuck"	Another clean deer species (Deut 14:5; 1 Ki 4:23) — listed alongside ṣəḇî, not interchangeable.

Semantic Domains¶

UBS / Relationship Domains¶

[001002006001] Wild Animals — reflects the gazelle / roebuck sense of ṣəḇî.
[002001001029] Good — reflects the desirable / pleasant / beautiful sense, especially in land-language.
[002001002012] Great — reflects the glory / splendor / excellence sense.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Strong's	Co-occ	PMI	Notes
Δορκάς (dorkás)	G1393	8	9.71	"gazelle" — primary LXX rendering of ṣəḇî II (the animal); name of Dorcas/Tabitha in Acts 9:36
ἐκλεκτός (eklektós)	G1588	4	5.50	"chosen, select" — renders ṣəḇî I when the sense is "choice/favored land"
ἐλπίς (elpís)	G1680	3	5.09	"hope" — used in some Isa contexts (the hoped-for glory)
δόξα (dóxa)	G1391	4	3.71	"glory" — renders ṣəḇî I in glory-contexts
ὄρος (óros)	G3735	4	2.78	"mountain" — collocational (translating the har-qodesh phrase)
γῆ (gē)	G1093	10	1.85	"land" — collocational with ʼerets

Bridge pattern: LXX splits ṣəḇî along the homonym boundary — Dorkás for the animal, Doxa/Eklektos for the abstract glory/choice sense. No single Greek word bridges both senses, which is itself evidence that translators read ṣəḇî as two distinct words.