The Day of Atonement was a time for fasting and cleansing from sin. Traditionally, the high priest made atonement on this day for the sins of the priests, the people, and the sanctuary.
The annual Day of Atonement (Yom Hakkippurim) is set forth in Leviticus 16:1–34 as the day for the supreme act of national atonement for sin. It took place on the tenth day of the seventh month, Tishri, and fasting was commanded from the evening of 9 Tishri until the evening of 10 Tishri, in keeping with the unusual sanctity of the day. On this day an atonement was effected for the people, the priesthood, and even for the sanctuary because it “is among them in the midst of their uncleanliness” (Lev. 16:16).
The Ritual
This was divided into two acts, one performed on behalf of the priesthood, and one on behalf of the nation Israel. The high priest, who had moved a week before this day from his own dwelling to the sanctuary, arose on the Day of Atonement, and having bathed and laid aside his regular high priestly attire, dressed in holy, white linen garments, and brought forward a young bullock or a sin offering for himself and for his house. The other priests, who on other occasions served in the sanctuary, on this day took their place with the sinful congregation for whom atonement was to be made (Lev. 16:17). The high priest slaughtered the sin offering for himself and entered the Holy of Holies with a censer of incense so that a cloud of fragrance might fill the room and cover the ark in order that the priest should not die. Then he returned with the blood of the sin offering and sprinkled it seven times before the mercy seat for the symbolic cleansing of the Holy of Holies, defiled by its presence among the sinful people. Having made atonement for himself, he returned to the court of the sanctuary.
The high priest next presented the two goats, secured as the sin offering for the people, to the Lord at the door of the tabernacle and cast lots over them, one lot marked for Yahweh, and the other for Azazel (Lev. 16:8 RSV). The goat on which the lot had fallen for the Lord was slain, and the high priest repeated the ritual of sprinkling the blood as before. In addition, he cleansed the Holy Place by a sevenfold sprinkling and, finally, cleansed the altar of burnt offerings.
The Goat for Azazel
In the second stage of the ceremony the live goat, the goat for Azazel, which had been left standing at the altar, was brought forward. The high priest, laying hands on it, confessed over it all the sins of the people, after which it was sent into an uninhabited wilderness, bearing the iniquity of the nation.
The precise significance of this part of the ceremony is determined by the meaning attached to the expression “for Azazel” (“for the scapegoat” [Lev. 16:8 kjv]). Basically, there are four interpretations. (1) A specific location would have been problematic for a people on the move, as was true for the Israelites at this time in their history. (2) Azazel was a person, either Satan or an evil spirit. But the name Azazel occurs nowhere else in Scripture, which is unlikely if he were so important a person to divide the sin offering with God, which the suggestion in itself has an offensive connotation. Moreover, demon worship is condemned in the Law in Leviticus 17:7–9. (3) Azazel was an abstract noun meaning “dismissal” or “complete removal.” (4) The name Azazel most likely designates the goat itself. This view was held by Josephus, Symmachus, Aquila, Theodotion, Martin Luther, Andrew Bonar, the Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, the King James Version (“scapegoat”), and others. Hence the goat was called in the Hebrew Azazel, meaning “the removing goat”: “[Aaron] shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel” (Lev. 16:8 RSV), for the removing goat—i.e., for the goat as the remover of sins. Both goats were called an atonement and both were presented to the Lord. Therefore, both goats were looked on as one offering. Since it was physically impossible to depict two ideas with one goat, two were needed as a single sin offering. The first goat by its death symbolized atonement for sins; the other, by confessing over it the sins of Israel and sending it away, symbolized complete removal of the sins (cf. Lev. 14:4–7).