Leviticus 16:10

Summary

Leviticus 16:10 describes the second goat in the Day of Atonement ritual: the one on which the lot fell for Azazel. This goat is to be stationed alive before Yehovah, in order to make atonement over it, and then to be sent away to Azazel in the wilderness.

Key words

• sa'ir ("male goat", H8163B) — the subject of the verse, marked with the definite article ha (H9009), identifying it as the specific goat already introduced by the lot-casting in the preceding verses.
• goral ("lot", H1486) — the noun governing the clause 'asher 'alah 'alav ha-goral ("which the lot came up on it"), a relative construction describing how this goat was selected.
• 'aza'zel ("Azazel", H5799) — appears twice, each time preceded by the preposition la (H9005, "for/to"), functioning as a proper name/title left untranslated in the Hebrew text.
• ya'omad ("it will be stationed", H5975H) — a hophal (causative-passive) imperfect: the goat does not stand on its own but "is made to stand" by someone else's action, distinguishing it from an active verb form.
• khaphar ("make atonement", H3722A) — piel infinitive construct with prefixed le ("to/for"), expressing purpose: the goat is stationed in order to accomplish atonement.

What the text says

The verse is built around two purpose infinitives introduced by le: le-khapher ("to make atonement", H3722A) and le-shallach ("to send away", H7971G, piel infinitive). The main verb ya'omad (H5975H) is hophal, a passive-causative stem, meaning the goat is caused to be stood — the grammar itself signals that the animal is acted upon rather than acting. This is followed by chai ("alive", H2416A), specifying the goat's condition at that moment, and li-phnei Yehovah ("before Yehovah", H6440G construct + H3068G), locating the action.

The two infinitives le-khapher and le-shallach are grammatically parallel, both governed by the same preposition le, presenting the atonement and the sending-away as a single connected purpose rather than two separate acts. The direct object marker 'oto (H0853 + suffix) on shallach explicitly marks the goat as the object being sent, reinforcing that the goat itself — not a substitute — is dispatched la-'aza'zel ha-midbarah ("to Azazel, to the wilderness", with directional he H9011 on midbarah, "wilderness").

Differences between versions

The Hebrew 'aza'zel (H5799) functions as an untranslated proper name/title in both occurrences. The LXX (Swete) instead renders it functionally: τοῦ ἀποπομπαίου ("of the one sent away") and εἰς τὴν ἀποπομπήν ("into the sending-away"), treating the term as descriptive of the ritual act rather than as a name. The Vulgate similarly translates rather than transliterates, using caprum emissarium ("the emissary/sent-out goat"), the source of the English "scapegoat" in BSB. The Hebrew text, by contrast, gives no indication that 'aza'zel is a description of the goat's function — it is used as a fixed term paired with the preposition la ("for/to Azazel"), parallel in form to la-Yehovah ("for Yehovah") used earlier in the chapter.