What is a scapegoat in the Bible?

Understanding Leviticus 16:21

The scapegoat is one of the most powerful images in the Bible and has given the English language a word used daily by people who have never read Leviticus. In its original context, the scapegoat was a literal goat used in the most solemn ceremony of the Israelite year — the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). Its theological significance extends from the wilderness tabernacle to the cross of Christ.

The Day of Atonement Ritual

Leviticus 16 describes the Day of Atonement, the one day each year when the high priest entered the Most Holy Place (Holy of Holies) to make atonement for the sins of the entire nation. The ritual was elaborate, dangerous, and deeply symbolic.

Two male goats were selected and presented at the entrance of the Tabernacle. The high priest cast lots over them — one lot 'for the LORD' and one lot 'for Azazel' (Leviticus 16:8). The goat chosen 'for the LORD' was sacrificed as a sin offering, its blood sprinkled on the mercy seat (the gold cover of the Ark of the Covenant) to make atonement.

The second goat — the one 'for Azazel' — is the scapegoat. After the first goat was sacrificed, the high priest laid both hands on the head of the live goat and confessed 'all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites — all their sins' (Leviticus 16:21). By this act, the sins were symbolically transferred from the people to the goat.

The goat was then led by a designated man into the wilderness — literally sent away into an uninhabited land, carrying the sins of the people with it. 'The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness' (Leviticus 16:22).

The Two Goats, One Atonement

The two goats together formed a single atonement. They were two aspects of the same theological reality:

The sacrificed goat represented the penalty of sin — death. Sin requires blood (Leviticus 17:11). The sacrificial goat died so the people would not. Its blood purified the sanctuary from the contaminating effects of Israel's sin.

The scapegoat represented the removal of sin — separation. The goat carried the sins away, visually demonstrating that the sins confessed were no longer attached to the people. They were gone, sent into the wilderness, removed from the community.

Together, the two goats depicted the complete work of atonement: sin is paid for (death) and sin is removed (banishment). One without the other would be incomplete.

What Is Azazel?

The Hebrew word azazel (Leviticus 16:8, 10, 26) has been one of the most debated terms in the Old Testament. Four major interpretations exist:

A place name. Some scholars read azazel as 'a rocky precipice' or 'a place of removal' — a reference to the wilderness location where the goat was released. Later Jewish tradition (the Mishnah, Yoma 6:6) describes the goat being pushed off a cliff in the Judean wilderness, suggesting a specific geographic location.

A description. The word may derive from ez ('goat') and azal ('to go away'), making azazel simply mean 'the goat that goes away' — the scapegoat. This is the most linguistically straightforward reading and the basis for the English term.

A desert demon. Some scholars interpret azazel as the name of a wilderness demon to whom the goat was sent — not as worship, but as a symbolic sending of sin back to its source. The Book of Enoch (a non-biblical Jewish text) names Azazel as a fallen angel who taught humanity forbidden knowledge. This interpretation is controversial but was held by some ancient Jewish commentators.

An abstract concept. Azazel may mean 'complete removal' or 'entire destruction' — describing what happens to the sin, not identifying a being or place.

The Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) translated azazel as 'the one sent away' (apopompaios), favoring the descriptive interpretation. The King James Version used 'scapegoat,' a word coined by William Tyndale in 1530 from 'escape goat' — the goat that escapes into the wilderness.

The Ritual in Practice

The Mishnah (Jewish oral law, compiled c. 200 AD) provides additional details about how the scapegoat ritual was performed in the Second Temple period:

A crimson thread was tied to the goat's horns and another to the Temple door. The designated man led the goat through a series of stations into the Judean wilderness. According to tradition, when the goat was sent away, the crimson thread on the Temple door would turn white — signaling that God had accepted the atonement (drawing on Isaiah 1:18: 'Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow').

The Talmud (Yoma 39b) records that during the last forty years before the Temple's destruction in 70 AD, the crimson thread stopped turning white — a detail Jewish and Christian commentators have interpreted with great interest.

Christ as the Scapegoat

The New Testament draws heavily on Day of Atonement imagery to explain the work of Jesus. Hebrews 9-10 is the primary text, but the scapegoat typology appears throughout:

Jesus bore our sins. 'He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross' (1 Peter 2:24). Like the scapegoat receiving the sins of Israel through the high priest's confession, Jesus received the sins of humanity on the cross. 'The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all' (Isaiah 53:6) uses the same concept — sin transferred to a substitute.

Jesus suffered outside the camp. 'Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood' (Hebrews 13:12). The scapegoat was sent outside the camp into the wilderness. Jesus was crucified outside the city walls of Jerusalem. The geographic parallel is deliberate.

Jesus removes sin permanently. The scapegoat ritual was repeated annually — sins were symbolically removed but returned each year. 'But now he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself' (Hebrews 9:26). Jesus did once what the scapegoat did symbolically every year.

Both goats in one. Jesus fulfills both goats of the Day of Atonement. He is the sacrificed goat — He died as the sin offering. He is the scapegoat — He carried sin away permanently. 'As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us' (Psalm 103:12). What took two goats in the type took one Savior in the fulfillment.

The Word in Modern Usage

The term 'scapegoat' has become one of the most common English words with a biblical origin. In modern usage, a scapegoat is a person or group unfairly blamed for the problems of others — someone who bears guilt that is not theirs. This secular usage, while derived from the biblical concept, misses the critical distinction: in the Bible, the scapegoat bore real guilt that genuinely belonged to the people. The transfer was not unfair — it was grace.