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Leviticus 16:5-19
New English Translation

5 He must also take[a] two male goats[b] from the congregation of the Israelites for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. 6 Then Aaron is to present the sin offering bull which is for himself and is to make atonement on behalf of himself and his household. 7 Next he must take the two goats[c] and stand them before the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, 8 and Aaron is to cast lots over the two goats,[d] one lot for the Lord and one lot for Azazel.[e] 9 Aaron must then present the goat which has been designated by lot for the Lord,[f] and he is to make it a sin offering, 10 but the goat which has been designated by lot for Azazel is to be stood alive[g] before the Lord to make atonement on it by sending it away into the desert to Azazel.[h]

The Sin-Offering Sacrificial Procedures

11 “Aaron is to present the sin-offering bull which is for himself, and he is to make atonement on behalf of himself and his household. He is to slaughter the sin-offering bull which is for himself, 12 and take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord[i] and a full double handful of finely ground fragrant incense,[j] and bring them inside the curtain.[k] 13 He must then put the incense on the fire before the Lord, and the cloud of incense will cover the atonement lid which is above the ark of the testimony,[l] so that he will not die.[m] 14 Then he is to take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the eastern face of the atonement lid,[n] and in front of the atonement lid he is to sprinkle some of the blood seven times with his finger.[o]

15 “Aaron[p] must then slaughter the sin-offering goat which is for the people. He is to bring its blood inside the curtain,[q] and he is to do with its blood just as he did to the blood of the bull: He is to sprinkle it on the atonement lid and in front of the atonement lid. 16 So[r] he is to make atonement for the Holy Place from the impurities of the Israelites and from their transgressions with regard to all their sins,[s] and thus he is to do for the Meeting Tent which resides with them in the midst of their impurities. 17 Nobody is to be in the Meeting Tent[t] when he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he goes out, and he has made atonement on his behalf, on behalf of his household, and on behalf of the whole assembly of Israel.

18 “Then[u] Aaron[v] is to go out to the altar which is before the Lord and make atonement for it. He is to take[w] some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it all around on the horns of the altar. 19 Then he is to sprinkle on it some of the blood with his finger seven times, and cleanse and consecrate it[x] from the impurities of the Israelites.

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Footnotes

  1. Leviticus 16:5 tn Heb “And he shall take.”
  2. Leviticus 16:5 tn Heb “he-goats of goats”; CEV “two goats, both of them males.”
  3. Leviticus 16:7 tn Heb “the two he-goats,” referred to as “two he-goats of goats” in v. 5.
  4. Leviticus 16:8 tn Heb “and Aaron shall give lots on the two he-goats.” See the note on Lev 8:8 for the priestly casting of lots in Israel and the explanation in B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 102, on Lev 16:8-9. J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:1019-20, suggests, however, that the expression here signifies that, the lots having been cast, the priest was to literally “place” (Heb “give”) the one marked “for the Lord” on the head of the goat to be sacrificed and the one marked “for Azazel” on the head of the one to be released in the wilderness in order to avoid confusing them later in the ritual sequence.
  5. Leviticus 16:8 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term עֲזָאזֵל (ʿazaʾzel, four times in the OT, all of them in this chapter; vv. 8, 10 [2 times], and 26) is much debated. There are three or perhaps four major views (see the summaries and literature cited in J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:1020-21; B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 102; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 237-38; D. P. Wright, The Disposal of Impurity [SBLDS], 21-25; M. V. Van Pelt and W. C. Kaiser, NIDOTTE 3:362-63; and M. S. Moore, NIDOTTE 4:421-22). (1) Some derive the term from a combination of the Hebrew word עֵז (ʿez, “goat”; i.e., the word for “goats” in v. 5) and אָזַל (ʾazal, “to go away”), meaning “the goat that departs” or “scapegoat” (cf., e.g., the LXX and KJV, NASB, NIV, NLT). This meaning suits the ritual practice of sending the so-called “scapegoat” away into the wilderness (vv. 10, 21-22, 26). Similarly, some derive the term from Arabic ʿazala (“to banish, remove”), meaning “entire removal” as an abstract concept (see BDB 736 s.v. עֲזָאזֵל). (2) Some see the term as a description of the wilderness area to which the goat was dispatched, deriving it somehow from Arabic ʿazazu (“rough ground”) or perhaps עָזָז, (ʿazaz, “to be strong, fierce”). (3) The most common view among scholars today is that it is the proper name of a particular demon (perhaps even the Devil himself) associated with the wilderness desert regions. Levine has proposed that it may perhaps derive from a reduplication of the ז (zayin) in עֵז combined with אֵל (ʾel, “mighty”), meaning “mighty goat.” The final consonantal form of עֲזָאזֵל would have resulted from the inversion of the א (ʾalef) with the second ז. He makes the point that the close association between עֵז and שְׂעִירִים (sheʿirim), which seems to refer to “goat-demons” of the desert in Lev 17:7 (cf. Isa 13:21, etc.), should not be ignored in the derivation of Azazel, although the term ultimately became the name of “the demonic ruler of the wilderness.” The latter view is supported by the parallel between the one goat “for (ל, lamed preposition) the Lord” and the one “for (ל) Azazel” here in v. 8. The rendering as a proper name has been tentatively accepted here (cf. ASV, NAB, NRSV, TEV, CEV). Perhaps a play on words between the proper name and the term for “goat” has occurred so that the etymology has become obscure. Even if a demon or the demonic realm is the source for the name, however, there is no intention here of appeasing the demons. The goal is to remove the impurity and iniquity from the community in order to avoid offending the Lord and the repercussions of such (see esp. vv. 21-22 and cf. Lev 15:31).
  6. Leviticus 16:9 tn Heb “which the lot has gone up on it for the Lord.”
  7. Leviticus 16:10 tn The LXX has “he shall stand it” (cf. v. 7).
  8. Leviticus 16:10 tn Heb “to make atonement on it to send it away to Azazel toward the wilderness.”
  9. Leviticus 16:12 tn Heb “and he shall take the fullness of the censer, coals of fire, from on the altar from to the faces of the Lord.”
  10. Leviticus 16:12 tn Heb “and the fullness of the hollow of his two hands, finely ground fragrant incense.”
  11. Leviticus 16:12 tn Heb “and he shall bring from house to the curtain.”
  12. Leviticus 16:13 tn The text here has only “above the testimony,” but this is surely a shortened form of “above the ark of the testimony” (see Exod 25:22 etc.; cf. Lev 16:2). The term “testimony” in this expression refers to the ark as the container of the two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments written on them (see Exod 25:16 with Deut 10:1, 5, etc.).
  13. Leviticus 16:13 tn Heb “and he will not die,” but it is clear that the purpose for the incense cloud was to protect the priest from death in the presence of the Lord (cf. vv. 1-2 above).
  14. Leviticus 16:14 tn Heb “on the faces of the atonement lid toward the east.” Some have taken this to mean that the ark was stationed just behind the veil-canopy on the eastern side of the most holy place. Thus, the high priest would need to enter and walk toward the west end of the most holy place and then turn eastward in order to face the ark and sprinkle the blood in an eastward direction. The rendering here, however, requires that the ark was stationed on the western end, or perhaps in the middle of the area, so that as the priest entered he was already facing the ark and would sprinkle the blood on the eastern face of the atonement lid, in a westward direction (see, e.g., J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 239 versus J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:1032).
  15. Leviticus 16:14 sn Presumably in this case the blood was sprinkled seven times on the ground in front of the ark on which the atonement lid was mounted.
  16. Leviticus 16:15 tn Heb “he”; the referent has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
  17. Leviticus 16:15 tn Heb “and he shall bring its blood into from house to the curtain.”
  18. Leviticus 16:16 tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative or even inferential force here.
  19. Leviticus 16:16 tn Heb “to all their sins.”
  20. Leviticus 16:17 tn Heb “And all man shall not be in the tent of meeting.” The term for “a man, human being” (אָדָם, ʾadam; see the note on Lev 1:2) refers to any person among “mankind,” male or female.
  21. Leviticus 16:18 tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) indicates the sequence of events here.
  22. Leviticus 16:18 tn Heb “he.”
  23. Leviticus 16:18 tn Heb “And he shall take.”
  24. Leviticus 16:19 tn Heb “and he shall purify it and he shall consecrate it.”
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