Two Goats – One Atonement

Weekly Torah Lesson

Parashat 1: Acharei Mot “After the Death”
Torah: VaYikra 16:1 – 18:30

V’Yikra 16:3 Thus shall Aharon come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. 4 He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches on his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen turban shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on. 5 And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. 6 And Aharon shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house (‘household’ – his wife and their descendants). 7 And he shall take the two goats, and present them before Avinu at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 8 And Aharon shall cast lots on the two goats; one lot for Avinu, and the other lot for the ahazel. 9 And Aharon shall bring the goat on which Avinu’s lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. 10 But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the ahazel, shall be presented alive before Avinu, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a ahazel into the wilderness.

11 And Aharon shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make an atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself: 12 And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before Avinu, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil: 13 And he shall put the incense on the fire before Avinu, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the testimony, that he die not: 14 And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. 15 Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat: 16 And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remains among them in the middle of their uncleanness. 17 And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goes in to make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made an atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel. 18 And he shall go out to the altar that is before Avinu, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar round about. 19 And he shall sprinkle of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. 20 And when he has made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat: 21 And Aharon shall lay both his hands on 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 on the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: 22 And the goat shall bear on him all their iniquities to a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. 23 And Aharon 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: 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. 25 And the fat of the sin offering shall he burn on the altar. 26 And he that let go the goat for the ahazel shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward come into the camp. 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. 28 And he that burns them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp. 29 And this shall be a statute for ever to you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojournes among you: 30 For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before Avinu. 31 It shall be a sabbath of rest to you, and you shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever. 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: 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. 34 And this shall be an everlasting statute to you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he did as Avinu commanded Moshe.

Azazel

Leviticus 16:10 (10) But the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before Avinu, to make an atonement upon it and sent away into the wilderness for Azazel.

The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippurim – plural in Hebrew) ritual follows the same pattern as the ritual for the cleansing of leprosy (tzaraat – A physical consequence for sins mainly committed by the tongue), found in nearby Leviticus 14:3-7, 49-53. It contains similar figures and activities as the ritual of the two goats, and is a type of the more important Day of Atonement ritual. In considering the lesser ritual, nothing suggests that the two birds are somehow opposites or represent opposing personalities. Instead, the birds are two essentially equal elements, each chosen to serve a different role to accomplish a single purpose. The two goats are likewise two equal actors, which by the casting of lots are determined which “role” each will fulfill. Both roles picture the future sacrifice of Meshiach and the resulting consequences of that sacrifice.

A detail in the leprosy ritual clarifies a part of the ritual with the two goats. The bird that is set free is dipped in the blood of the one that is killed (Leviticus 14:6, 51), showing that a cleansing or sanctification is made for the bird that is then freed. This is more obscure in the instruction for the goats, but can be found in Leviticus 16:10: “But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before Avinu, to make atonement upon [Hebrew ‘al] it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.”

The NKJV here says atonement is made upon the goat, which is a reasonable translation since ‘al is simply a preposition with any number of English equivalents. Other translations and commentators, such as the Companion Bible and the Cambridge Bible, hold that here ‘al indicates for the live goat—that is, the goat is presented alive before Avinu to make atonement for it. Ellicott’s Commentary makes this observation: “Better, to make atonement for it, that is, it was placed before Avinu in order that it might receive expiation and sanctification, and thus be fitted for the sacred purposes it was destined to fulfil” (emphasis theirs).

Scripture backs up this observation. The azazel parallels the live bird that was dipped in the blood of the sacrificed bird and then let go. Atonement had to take place before the second animal (bird or goat) could fulfill its role. Even though Yeshua had no need to be cleansed from sin, He was still separated for a Holy purpose.

“do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of Avinu’?” (John 10:36)

The azazel is not brought before Avinu for the sake of judgment (Leviticus 16:10), since it is the symbol of innocence at this point, as the priest has not yet laid his hands on its head. Instead, the goat stands before Avinu in order to be sanctified (separated, made holy) , receiving its charge to bear the burden of sin and depart out of sight.

In both the leprosy and the Day of Atonement rituals, one animal is killed while another is set free, with the implication of bearing the uncleanness (in the case of leprosy) or sins (in the case of the azazel) to another place. The single sin offering has two aspects: 1) the sacrifice for the payment or propitiation for sin, and 2) the complete removal of sin from view—including from memory and the consciousness. Avinu sees to both the payment for and removal of sin; even our conscience is cleansed (

“”I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” (Isa 43:25)

“as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” (Ps 103:12)

“how much more will the blood of Meshiach, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to Avinu, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living Avinu.” (Heb 9:14)

What is accomplished, then, is more than just payment for sin. The ritual makes use of two animals to show different features of this unique sin offering. One animal died as a type of payment, so that justice would be satisfied. The other remained alive to demonstrate the complete removal of sin from view.

Yeshua’s sacrifice is the only sacrifice that accomplishes this complete “salvation” from our sins. Thus allowing us to live a new life of conformation into His “likeness”

Leviticus 16:8 (8) And Aaron shall cast lots on the two goats; one lot for Avinu and the other lot for Azazel.

This first biblical occurrence of lots being cast shows that the matter of choosing what goat fills which role is completely in Avinu’s hands. Avinu does not leave it up to man to choose which would fulfill these roles because of man’s inability to judge properly.

I Chronicles 24—26 shows that governmental roles in Israel were determined by lot. To remove any ambiguity, various officials, Levites, musicians, gatekeepers, and other leaders were assigned their lots in life through Avinu’s decision. The same thing occurs in Leviticus 16: Avinu determines which goat will fulfill which role.

The matter of the different roles becomes clear after understanding Leviticus 16:8. A difficulty springs up here, though, because the construction seems to imply two separate personalities: One lot is cast “for Avinu,” and another “for azazel.” However, if we look deeper, we will see that the phrase “for Avinu” is not about identifying a personality at all.

Because we have the benefit of looking back in history on Meshiach’s sacrifice and understand that the sacrificial system pointed forward to the work of the Messiah, our minds tend to interpret “for Avinu” to mean “as a representation of Avinu.” While the sin offerings did pre-figure Meshiach, the phrase was not intended to mean this, but that the first goat was designated “as belonging to Avinu.”

It is used in the same sense that the sacred incense was “holy for Avinu” (Exodus 30:37), that in wartime the Israelites were to “levy a tribute for Avinu” (Numbers 31:28), and that an idolatrous city was to be completely burned “for Avinu Elohekah” (Deuteronomy 13:16). The first goat’s role was to appease Avinu and to be sacrificed to Him; it was for Avinu’s satisfaction in the ritual, not to represent Him.

Consider that the Israelites did not truly understand the intent of the sacrificial system. During the first century, the concepts that the Messiah would be Avinu-in-the-flesh and that He would be killed in fulfillment of the whole sacrificial system were entirely foreign. If there was ever a national consciousness that the first goat was a representation of the Creator Avinu, dying for the sins of the people, it was clearly forgotten by the time it was fulfilled!

Even though we can now read various psalms and prophecies related to the crucifixion and recognize them as Messianic, the Israelites did not have this understanding; they thought the Messiah would be a human leader who would restore them to national greatness. In like manner, they certainly understood, not that one of the goats would represent Avinu, but that the goat was a sacrifice to Avinu. The instructions do not specify how the ritual would later be fulfilled—only what the goats were for.

Along these lines, azazel is not a name in the Bible, nor did the live goat represent a second personality, but instead it fulfilled a second purpose. It was chosen to accomplish just what the Hebrew root word means: departure, removal, or disappearance. The first goat was for Avinu because His justice must be satisfied; it was for the cleansing of His house (Tabernacle and people). The second goat was for an additional step after the penalty for sin was paid: completely removing the sins from view by bearing them to an uninhabited land. Thus, while many infer that two personalities are in view in Leviticus 16:8, the construction does not require it. Rather, the lots were cast to determine which goat would fulfill each role within this compound atonement for sin.