[Heb., ʼai·yalʹ].

An adult male deer. The red deer (Cervus elaphus), the fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica), and the roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) are three varieties of deer that were once native to Palestine.

Being a chewer of the cud and a splitter of the hoof, the stag, according to the Law, was acceptable for food if, as in the case of other creatures, its blood was poured out upon the ground. (De 12:15, 16, 22, 23; 14:4-6; 15:22, 23) The flesh of the stag was included among the meats provided for King Solomon’s table.​—1Ki 4:22, 23.

Other Scriptural references to the stag are illustrative. The Shulammite compared her shepherd lover to a young stag and made allusion to the swiftness of this animal. (Ca 2:9, 17; 8:14) The stag’s ability to climb steep places with ease is used to illustrate the complete cure of lame persons. (Isa 35:6; compare Heb 12:12, 13.) When faced with the Babylonian siege, Zion’s princes were like stags too weak from lack of food to run.​—La 1:6.