sheep and goats

Distinctions

seh (שה)

Gender-neutral, a single young animal of either species. The Torah regularly pairs seh with a word that specifies which species is meant (Shemos 12:5; Bamidbar 15:11; Devarim 14:4), which is itself the proof that seh alone does not decide sheep against goat.

tzon (צאן)

The collective: a flock or herd, sheep and goats together. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim traces it to the tzadi element meaning "goes out," since these lighter animals go out to graze even in winter, where the heavier cattle stay in.

eiz (עז)

Adult she-goat, plural izzim. Rabbi David Ibn Zimra: absent a stated age, eiz covers any female goat from eight days old until two years. Pappenheim traces it to the two-letter ayin-zayin element of what is stable and unwavering, the same element behind azus (brazenness) and oz (strength), because the goat's unbending legs give it footing to climb and leap.

tayish (תיש)

Adult male goat, a billy or buck. Pappenheim traces the root to tav-shin, "weakening" (netishah, the loosening of a bond; tash and tashash, energy failing; yatush, the frailest of creatures), and reads tayish as the pole opposite, the animal of conspicuous strength.

gedi (גדי) and seir (שעיר)

Both are young goats. Gedi / gediyah is a kid up to a year; seir / seirah covers young goats at any age. Abarbanel (Vayikra 16:5) links seir to tzair, young; Rav Hirsch (Devarim 32:2) links it to se'ar, hair, the kid being hairy. Aramaic tzfir (Daniel 8:8, 8:21) is seir. The texts of the Rambam (Hilchos Maaseh HaKorbanos 1:14) divide over whether seir alone names a goat in its second year (so Rashi to Menachos 91b) or whether the term is only seir izzim.

rachel (רחל)

Adult female sheep, a ewe. Rashi (Menachos 107b): a rachel is in its second year or older.

ayil (איל)

The ram, plural eilim, the rachel's counterpart (Menachos 13:7); Parah 1:3 sets it at a male sheep more than a month into its second year. Pappenheim traces it to the aleph-lamed element of power, the ram being the strongest of an otherwise flimsy species. Rabbinic Hebrew sometimes says zachar shel rechalim, "a male of the ewes," instead (Parah 3:3; Bechoros 5:3; Bava Kama 50a; Yevamos 121b); Rabbi Yisrael David Miller of Grodno suggests this avoids confusion with ayal, a deer, and others distinguish a castrated from an uncastrated ram. Yovel too means ram (Rosh Hashanah 26a), then the ram's horn (Yehoshua 6:4-5), then the fiftieth year announced by that horn.

keves (כבש) and kesev (כשב)

Keves / kivsah is a sheep within its first year (Parah 1:3). Pesikta Rabbasi expounds keves as though from kevisah, laundering, the sacrificial lamb washing away sin. In fourteen places the Torah writes kesev / kisbah instead. Three readings:

• Ibn Parchon, Rabbi Yishaya of Trani, Radak, and Ibn Ezra: pure metathesis, identical in meaning. (Even so, Turei Zahav, Orach Chaim 143:2, rules a sefer Torah unfit if one is written for the other.)
• Panei'ach Raza and Baal HaTurim to Vayikra 3:7, Peirush HaRokeach to Vayikra 4:32, and the Netziv (HaEmek Davar to Vayikra 1:10): kesev is the bigger or older animal.
• Rabbi Shmuel Strashun, Malbim, and Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk: keves is always young, kesev is the general term at any age.

Rabbi Aharon Marcus takes keves from washing and kesev from kisah / mechuseh, covered, sheep being covered in wool.

tleh (טלה)

Another young sheep. Rav Hirsch (Bereishis 30:32): it can name a young human as well, like English "kid" (see Rashi to Megillah 5b). Pappenheim traces it to the tes-lamed element behind tal, dew: as vapor grows heavy enough to be drawn down, so the newborn's own weight helps open the way at birth. Rabbi Meir Mazuz derives from Shemos 23:19 and Shmuel I 7:9 that tleh and gedi name animals still nursing.

atud (עתוד)

The least settled word here. Ibn Ezra (Bamidbar 15:25; Yeshayahu 1:11): a he-goat larger and stronger than usual, especially the male that leads the flock (Yirmiyahu 50:8). Targum Onkelos renders it tayish in one place (Bereishis 31:10) and gedi in another (Bamidbar 7:17). Peirush HaTur HaAruch (Bereishis 31:10) and Rabbi Yosef Chiyyun (Tehillim 50:13): atudim are fattened kevasim. Ramban (Bereishis 31:10): any adult male of either species. Related fatling words: karim (Devarim 32:14; Yechezkel 27:21; Yirmiyahu 51:40), perhaps male sheep specifically, which Pappenheim traces to kaf-reish, digging, after the ditches that bordered rich pasture; and meri / meriim, fattened sheep and goats per Rashi to Yeshayahu 1:11 but fattened cattle per Ibn Ezra there, traced by Pappenheim to reish-vav, quenching or satisfying.

Rendering guidance

• Trap: "sheep" absorbs seh, tzon, keves, kesev, and tleh. Where a pasuk lists a species pair, keep the pair visible: שה כשבים ושה עזים (Shemos 12:5) is "a lamb of the sheep or a kid of the goats," not "a sheep or a goat."
• Seh on its own in a korban context is "lamb" only where the context has already said sheep; otherwise "an animal from the flock" is safer than choosing a species the Hebrew left open.
• Tzon is a collective. "Sheep" for tzon loses the goats in it; "flock" keeps them.
• Keves and kesev: unless the passage turns on the difference, render both "lamb." If it does turn on it (a derashah on the fourteen kesev places, or a count of the two spellings), follow the majority of the later commentators and make keves the young one and kesev the general or older term, and say whose reading you are following.
• Ayil is "ram," never "deer"; ayal is the deer. In an unpointed text check the context before choosing.
• Atud: "he-goat" is the safe default. Where the pasuk is about leading the flock, "leader of the flock" carries the sense the commentators give it.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "The Ovine and Caprine Families," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 9 Kislev 5780 (2019-12-07): https://articles.ohr.edu/articles/the-ovine-and-caprine-families; raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8505-the-ovine-and-caprine-families.md. Primary loci cited: Shemos 12:5, 23:19; Bamidbar 7:17, 15:11, 15:25; Devarim 14:4, 32:14; Vayikra 1:10, 3:7, 4:32, 16:5; Bereishis 30:32, 31:10; Shmuel I 7:9; Yeshayahu 1:11; Yirmiyahu 50:8, 51:40; Yechezkel 27:21; Tehillim 50:13; Yehoshua 6:4-5; Daniel 8:8, 8:21; Menachos 13:7, 91b, 107b; Parah 1:3, 3:3; Bechoros 5:3; Bava Kama 50a; Yevamos 121b; Rosh Hashanah 26a; Pesikta Rabbasi; Rambam, Hilchos Maaseh HaKorbanos 1:14; Turei Zahav, Orach Chaim 143:2. Comparative Arabic and Akkadian derivations given in the original are omitted here.