Scapegoat

Once a year, on the tenth day of the seventh month, Israel’s high priest dealt with the people’s sins in a particular way. Two goats stood before the LORD, and lots were cast: one for sacrifice, the other “for the scapegoat”. Aaron laid his hands on the live goat and confessed Israel’s sins over it, and the goat “shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited”. Leviticus 16 describes the whole day of atonement. Many Christians see it as a picture of what Christ later did, while Jewish readers keep it as the heart of Yom Kippur.

19 verses

Leviticus

Leviticus 16:7

And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

Leviticus 16:8

And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.

Leviticus 16:9

And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD'S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.

Leviticus 16:10

But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.

Leviticus 16:20

And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat:

Leviticus 16:21

And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:

Leviticus 16:22

And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

Leviticus 16:23

And Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall put off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there:

Leviticus 16:24

And he shall wash his flesh with water in the holy place, and put on his garments, and come forth, and offer his burnt offering, and the burnt offering of the people, and make an atonement for himself, and for the people.

Leviticus 16:25

And the fat of the sin offering shall he burn upon the altar.

Leviticus 16:26

And he that let go the goat for the scapegoat shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward come into the camp.

Leviticus 16:27

And the bullock for the sin offering, and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall one carry forth without the camp; and they shall burn in the fire their skins, and their flesh, and their dung.

Leviticus 16:28

And he that burneth them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp.

Leviticus 16:29

And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you:

Leviticus 16:30

For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.

Leviticus 16:31

It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.

Leviticus 16:32

And the priest, whom he shall anoint, and whom he shall consecrate to minister in the priest's office in his father's stead, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen clothes, even the holy garments:

Leviticus 16:33

And he shall make an atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar, and he shall make an atonement for the priests, and for all the people of the congregation.

Leviticus 16:34

And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

Lev. 16:8-26; R.V., “the goat for Azazel” (q.v.), the name given to the goat which was taken away into the wilderness on the day of Atonement (16:20-22). The priest made atonement over the scapegoat, laying Israel’s guilt upon it, and then sent it away, the goat bearing “upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited.”

At a later period an evasion or modification of the law of Moses was introduced by the Jews. “The goat was conducted to a mountain named Tzuk, situated at a distance of ten Sabbath days’ journey, or about six and a half English miles, from Jerusalem. At this place the Judean desert was supposed to commence; and the man in whose charge the goat was sent out, while setting him free, was instructed to push the unhappy beast down the slope of the mountain side, which was so steep as to insure the death of the goat, whose bones were broken by the fall. The reason of this barbarous custom was that on one occasion the scapegoat returned to Jerusalem after being set free, which was considered such an evil omen that its recurrence was prevented for the future by the death of the goat” (Twenty-one Years’ Work in the Holy Land). This mountain is now called el-Muntar.

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From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

[ATONEMENT, THE DAY OF, DAY OF]