Purification for the Tabernacle (16:15–19)

(1) Blood of Congregation’s Goat Sprinkled on Mercy Seat (16:15)

15“He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull’s blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it.

16:15 Next Aaron slaughtered the goat for the sin offering of the people and took its blood behind the curtain and sprinkled it like the bull’s blood on the atonement cover and in front of it.

(2) Purification for Holy Place and Tent of Meeting (16:16–17)

16In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been. He is to do the same for the Tent of Meeting, which is among them in the midst of their uncleanness.¹⁷No one is to be in the Tent of Meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he comes out, having made atonement for himself, his household and the whole community of Israel.

16:16–17 After the sin offering was given on behalf of the people, purification was made for various items inside the tabernacle. In this manner atonement was made for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites (16:16a). The wordpešaʿ, translated “rebellion” in the NIV, is the most grievous word for sin in the Old Testament. The term refers to sin in its grossest manifestation. It indicates a breach of relationship²⁷ between two parties and was probably borrowed

27According to R. Knierim the essential meaning is “break (with).” This usage is illustrated in Exod 34:7; Lev 16:16; Num 14:18; 1 Kgs 8:50; Isa 43:25; 44:22; Mic 7:18; Ps 32:1 (

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from the diplomatic realm, where it indicated a covenant-treaty violation.²⁸The word thus indicates that a violation of the covenant has been perpetrated. This initial use of the word in Leviticus indicates that on the Day of Atonement not only were intentional sins atoned for but that the tabernacle was purified to allow God’s presence to reside. The notion that atonement was to be made for purification is not introduced here for the first time. Purification resulting from atonement occurred in the context of the cleansing of the young mother in 12:8 and the person with a skin disease in 14:18–19. The unrestricted nature of forgiveness on this day indicates why the blood was to be carried so close to God’s presence.²⁹

In the same manner atonement was to be made for the Tent of Meeting (16:16b).

The various objects in the Tent of Meeting were to be sprinkled with the blood. No one was to be in the tabernacle when Aaron was presenting the atoning offering for himself, his household, and the Israelite community (16:17). “Under both testaments there is but one mediator between God and man (cf. 1 Tim 2:5).”³⁰

(3) Purification for the Altar (16:18–19)

18“Then he shall come out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it. He shall take some of the bull’s blood and some of the goat’s blood and put it on all the horns of the altar. ¹⁹He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times to cleanse it and to consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites.

16:18–19 Next atonement was to made for the burnt offering altar, for Aaron was to sprinkle blood on the altar seven times, thereby cleansing it from the uncleanness of the Israelites. Jenson has correctly noted the progression in the purification process.

First the most holy object (mercy seat) was purified, then the Tent of Meeting (including the incense altar), and finally the altar of burnt offering, the most holy object in the court.³¹

4. Scapegoat (16:20–22)

(1) Goat Sent to the Wilderness (16:20–21)

20“When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. ²¹He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task.

28G. H. Livingston,

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29Hamilton, Handbook, 290.

30Wenham, Leviticus, 233.

31P. P. Jenson, Graded Holiness: A Key to the Priestly Conception of the World, JSOTSup 106 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992), 204.

16:20–21 After atonement was made for the Most Holy Place, the tabernacle, and the altar, Aaron laid his hands on the live goat, and confessed over it the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites. He then sent the goat into the desert under the supervision of a designated man.³²

Another unique feature of the Day of Atonement emerges here. Instead of placing a single hand upon the sacrificial animal as in earlier contexts (1:4; 3:2, 8, 13; 4:4, 24, 29, 33), here Aaron as the high priest places both of his hands upon the live goat (16:21). Zohar argues that this intensification is significant because it indicates that intentional sins are being transferred.³³ Moreover, unlike the sacrificial procedures described in Leviticus 1–7, it is Aaron, not the individual worshiper, who places his hand on the animal. Aaron, as the representative for the nation, mediates for the entire nation, and sin will be dealt with in the most thoroughgoing way. This is the second occurrence of the term for confession in the Book of Leviticus (see 5:5), though we must assume that confession played a critical role in the concept of atonement for the Israelites. The root meaning of ydh is “to throw, cast” and may carry the sense “to reveal oneself.”³⁴It is clear from the context that the confession is to pertain primarily to the comprehensive nature of Israel’s sinfulness and subsequent need of forgiveness, since three separate terms for sin are mentioned in Lev 16:21.³⁵

According to the Mishnah, the high priest said the following prayer as he placed his hands upon the scapegoat:

O God, thy people, the House of Israel, have committed iniquity, transgressed, and sinned before thee. O God, forgive, I pray, the iniquities and transgressions and sins which thy people, the House of Israel, have committed and transgressed and sinned before thee; as it is written in the law of thy servant Moses, For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you: from all your sins shall ye be clean before the Lord (Lev 16:30; Yoma 6:2).³⁶

Perhaps the theology of confession is best stated in Prov 28:13: “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”

Other formal confessions in the Bible occur in Neh 9:1–38; Dan 9:4–19. After confession was made, the live goat³⁷was sent out into the wilderness.

32According to tradition, quite a commotion occurred when the goat began his journey to the solitary place. The goat was greeted along the way by people who would pull his wool, spit at him, and prick him (Barn. 7:8; m. Yoma 6:4).

33N. Zohar, “Repentance and Purification: The Significance and Semantics of

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Pentateuch,” JBL 107/4 (1988): 615, n. 31. G. Anderson also believes that advertent sins are atoned for on the Day of Atonement (“Sacrifice and Sacrificial Offerings (OT),” ABD 5:879.

34See chap. I, p. 118.

35The same terms all occur in Ps 51:2–3 [Hb. 4–5].

36Danby, The Mishnah, 169.

37The term

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(2) Scapegoat Bears the Nations’ Iniquities (16:22)

22The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert.

16:22 The goat carried away all the sins of the Israelites. The destiny of the goat was to a solitary place (gĕzērâ).³⁸ According to Jewish tradition the goat was subsequently thrown over a cliff to prevent it from returning to camp carrying the sins of Israel.³⁹

In the Day of Atonement ceremony the first animal pictures the means for atonement, the shedding of blood in the sacrificial death.⁴⁰The scapegoat pictures the effect of atonement, the removal of guilt. What is accomplished in the scapegoat ritual is expressed by David in the Psalms: “As far as east is from west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Ps 103:12). Both these aspects of this special day have their fulfillment in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The scapegoat ritual also may have been in Isaiah’s mind when he described the suffering of the Suffering Servant as bearing griefs and sins (Isa 53:4, 6). The term nāśāʾ used in Lev 16:22 in reference to the scapegoat’s “bearing” iniquities is used in the same sense in Isa 53:4, 12.⁴¹

5. Procedures After the Dispatch of the Scapegoat (16:23–28)