not the slightest idea of presenting a sacrifice to Azazel. This goat was a sin-offering, only so far as it was laden with the sins of the people to carry them away into the desert; and in this respect alone is there a resemblance between the two goats and the two birds used in the purification of the leper (Lev 14:4.), of which the one to be set free was bathed in the blood of the one that was killed. In both cases the reason for making use of two animals is to be found purely in the physical impossibility of combining all the features, that had to be set forth in the sin-offering, in one single animal.
verses 23-25
After the living goat had been sent away, Aaron was to go into the tabernacle, i.e., the holy place of the dwelling, and there take off his white clothes and lay them down, i.e., put them away, because they were only to be worn in the performance of the expiatory ritual of this day, and then bathe his body in the holy place, i.e., in the court, in the laver between the altar and the door of the dwelling, probably because the act of laying the sins upon the goat rendered him unclean. He was then to put on his clothes, i.e., the coloured state-dress of the high priest, and to offer in this the burnt-offerings, for an atonement for himself and the nation (see Lev 1:4), and to burn the fat portions of the sin-offerings upon the altar.
verses 26-28
The man who took the goat into the desert, and those who burned the two sin-offerings outside the camp (see at Lev 4:11, Lev 4:21), had also to wash their clothes and bathe their bodies before they returned to the camp, because they had been defiled by the animals laden with sin.
verses 29-31
Lev 16:29-31General directions for the yearly celebration of the day of atonement. - It was to be kept on the tenth day of the seventh month, as an “everlasting statute” (see at Exo 12:14). On that day the Israelites were to “afflict their souls,” i.e., to fast, according to Lev 23:32, from the evening of the 9th till the evening of the 10th day. Every kind of work was to be suspended as on the Sabbath (Exo 20:10), by both natives and foreigners (see Exo 12:49), because this day was a high Sabbath (Exo 31:15). Both fasting and sabbatical rest are enjoined again in Lev 23:27. and Num 29:7, on pain of death. The fasting commanded for this day, the only fasting prescribed in the law, is most intimately connected with the signification of the feast of atonement. If the general atonement
