The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 275

, .. and make an atonement for himself, and summarily rejected. If II localized spot for his home. The first step is an expiatory were meant, that spot would have been left offering to r~concile the officiating priest behind by a people constantly on the move. 11nd the remamder of the priestly house to The second hypothesis-that aziizel was an God, This W8r necessary before his offer- evil spirit, or the evil spirit-has been ings for the pwple could be accepted. It embraced by so considerable a number of indirotes the defects inherent in a priest modem expositors, that it is necessary to whose no.ture was only t."ut of man, which dwell upon it at some length. But, indeed, is compassed about with infirmities. The it has little to recommend it. It has been offering here commo.nded is not the slaying, argued that aziizel must be a proper name, but the solemn presentation, of the bullock because it has no article prefixed to it, to the Lord. In after times the following la-aziizel. This is a grammatical error. form of confession was used by the high When a nonn expresses an office or a priest when he lo.id his hand upon the function, and bas the preposition le or la bullock:-" 0 Lord, I have committed ini- prefixed to it, it does not take an article in quity; I have transgressed ; I have sinned, Hebrew any more than in French ; e.g. in I and my house. 0 Lord, I entreat thee, the verse," Jehu.,, sbalt thou anoint to be cover over the iniquities, the transgressions, king (or for kiog) over Israel; and Elisha and the sins which I have committed, trans- .•. shal t thou oppoin t to be prophet (or for gressed, and sinned before thee, I and my prophet) in thy room" (1 Kings xix. 16), honse; even as it is written in the Law of the Hebrew is le-melek and le-11avi, without Moses thy servo.nt, ' For on that day will the a.rticle. The same idiom will be found he cover over for you, to make you clean ; in I Sam. xxv. 30; 2 Sam. vii. H. With from all yonr transgressions before the Lord greater plausibility it is argued that ver. ye shall be cleansed " (Edersheim, • Temple 8 contrasts J ehovo.h and Azo.zel, and that if Service'). la-Yehovah be translated "for J ehova.h," or Vere. 7, 8.-It must be carefully noted "for the Lord," la-aziizel must be tronslo.ted that, as the two goats made one sin offering "for Azo.zel." It may be allowed that there ( ver. 5), so they are both presented before is a primrifacie likelibood that, where words the Lord at the door of the to.berno.ole of the aro thus contrasted, if one designates a congregation. By this solemn presentation person, the other would designate a person. they became the Lord's, one as much as But it is an incredibly rash assertion that the other. After this, Aaron is to oast lots this is always the case. All depends upon upon the two goats, The two goats, of the the idea which the speaker or writer bns snme size and o.ppeo.ranre ns far o.s possible, in his mind and desires to express. As stood together near the entmnce of the court. po.rt of the same argument, it is urged And by them was an urn cont11ining two that the preposition, being the same in lots. These the high priest drew out o.t the both clauses of the sentence, must be trans- so.me moment, plaoing one on the hend of lated by the so.me word. This is t'erto.inly one goat, the other on the head of the other not the case, The no.turul meaning of ls go11t. According as the lot fell, one of the with o. proper no.me is" for," and with II word goats wns tnken and 11t once offered to the exprl'ssing the performance of some function Lord, with a view to being shortly s11crificed; (technico.lly called nomen agentiB) it means the other wns 11ppoiuted for n sc1\pogont, "to be" (see the po.sso.g-e quoted above from and reserved till the expiatory sucrificcs bo.d I Kings xix. 16). Unless, therefore, aziizel been made, when it too was offered to the be a proper name (which bas to be proved, Lord, 11nd then sent away into the wilder- not ussumed) the preposition need not and ness. Arter the lot b11cl been chosen, the ougM not to be translated by "for" but by two goats were distinguished from euoh " lo be." The word ls is used with greo.t other by having n piece of scarlet cloth tied, latitude, and often in a different sense iu the first round its neck, the second round tho some sentence; e.g. Exod. xii. 2¼; eh. its bom. One lot for the Lord, 11nd the xxvi. 12. Tho objections to the tbeory that other lot for the soapegoat. The last word aziizel means an ovil spirit are of over- is in the original la-azazel, and being found whelming force. It will be enough to name only in this chapter, it has caused a great the following. 1. The name aziizel is disorepRncy of opinion among interpreters nowhere else mentioned. This could not RB to its meaning. It has been diversely be, if he were so important a being as to regarded as a place, a porson, a thing, Rnd divicle with Jehovah the sin offering of the an abstro.ction. The fir~t class of inb1r- congregation of Israel on the great D11y of preters explain it ns some district of the AtonemenL. 2. No suitable etymology ron wilderness: the second unrlerstnnd by it o.n be discerned. The nearest appronoh to it evil spirit ; the third take it o.s a designation is very forced-" the separated one." 3. Tho of the go11t; the fourth tro.nslo.te it, "for notion of appeosing, or bribing, or mockin" removo.l." The first interpretation may be tho evil spirit by presenting to him a gout,  240 Tl'IE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [oH, XVI, 1-34.