The Day of Atonements

Lev. 16:16, 17, 18 

And he shall make atonement for the set-apart Place because of the impurities of the children of Israel and because of their transgressions regarding all their sins.  

And he shall do the same for the Tent of Meeting which dwells with them amid their impurities. 

…that he may make atonement for himself, his household, and all the assembly of Israel. 

And he shall go out to the altar that is before YHWH and make atonement for it. 

On one day of the year, every year, the high priest would make seven different atonements.  

He would make atonement for 1) the set-apart Place, 2) the Tent of Meeting,  3) himself, 4) his family, 5) the entire nation, and 6) the Altar.

Finally, he would make the seventh atonement with a live goat. Lev. 16:20, 10

And when he finishes atoning for the set-apart place, the tent of meeting, and the altar, he shall offer the live goat. 

And the goat on which the lot for Azazel, it shall be presented alive before YHWH, to make atonement over him, to send him away for Azazel into the wilderness. 

For this seventh and final atonement, the high priest would place both his hands on the goat’s head, confess over it all the sins of the people, and symbolically place them on the goat’s head (Lev. 16:21). What is said next is of particular interest:

Lev. 16:22 

And the goat will bear on itself all their iniquities to a land which is cut off. And he shall release the goat in the wilderness. 

It was as if the people’s sins were transferred to the goat and carried away into the wilderness. The prophet Isaiah later uses this passage’s language concerning a certain representative of the nation of Israel. 

Isa. 53:6, 8 

And we like sheep have gone astray…YHWH has placed on him the iniquity of us all. 

For the transgression of his people, he was cut off from the land of the living. 

The people’s sins are placed on a single being in both passages. In each instance, this being is sent to a land that is cut off (Lev. 16:22) or cut off from the land (Isa. 53:8). In Hebrew, the same two words (for cut off and land) are used consecutively. 

This day stands out from all the other days of the year. On the tenth day of the seventh month, the final atonement was dramatized to display YHWH’s forgiveness. As the psalmist put it, “As far as the east is from the west, so has He removed the sins of His people” (Psa. 103:12). 

For this reason, we fast on this day annually, praying for His forgiveness and redemption for all His people.