Sources: Leviticus 16; Numbers 29:7–11; the Mishnah Tractate Yoma; Philo, On the Special Laws 2.193–222.

Leviticus 16 describes the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) ritual in which the high priest performs atonement for the entire community through two goats: one sacrificed to YHWH as a sin offering, one sent alive into the wilderness “to Azazel” bearing the community’s confessed sins. The word “scapegoat” derives from William Tyndale’s translation “the goat that escapes” (1530) — it has since entered general English usage for any person blamed for others’ wrongs. The Azazel goat is theologically complex: scholars debate whether Azazel is a place (the wilderness), a demon, or a description (the goat that departs). The Mishnah Yoma describes the elaborate ritual in detail: the lot-casting between the two goats, the high priest’s confession placing hands on the live goat’s head while reciting Israel’s sins, the dispatch of the goat to the wilderness. The structure involves two complementary mechanisms: blood-manipulation to purify the sanctuary (the sacrificed goat), and physical removal of impurity through the living goat. Philo allegorizes the two goats as representing punishment and forgiveness respectively. The Yom Kippur ritual’s power lies in its completeness: the community’s sins are not just forgiven but physically removed, carried away from the camp into uninhabited wilderness by a living animal that cannot return.