Leviticus 16:22

Summary

The verse describes the goat carrying away the collected iniquities of the people into a "land of cutting off," followed by its release into the wilderness. Two sequential actions are described: the goat's bearing of the sins, and its subsequent release.

Key words

• na.Sa ("it will bear", H5375J) — qal stem, sequential perfect; describes a simple, direct action of the goat carrying the burden on itself.
• sa.'Ir ("male goat", H8163B) — masculine singular noun, definite article; appears twice, once as subject of "bear," once as object of "let go," marking continuity of the same animal across the two clauses.
• 'a.vo.no.Tam ("their iniquities", H5771G + suffix) — feminine plural construct with third-person plural suffix, indicating a collective category ("all the iniquities of them") that the goat bears.
• ge.ze.Rah ("infertile/cut off", H1509) — feminine singular noun in construct with 'E.retz ("land", H0776G), forming the phrase "land of cutting-off," describing the destination as a place set apart or separated.
• shi.Lach ("he will let go", H7971H) — piel stem (intensive), sequential perfect; a stronger causative sense of "sending away" compared to the simple na.Sa.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as two linked clauses joined by the narrative vav (H9001), each carrying a sequential perfect verb that continues a chain of action begun earlier in the passage. In the first clause, ha.sa'ir ("the goat") is grammatically the subject of na.Sa ("it will bear"), carrying "all their iniquities" (kol 'avonotam) toward "a land of cutting-off" ('eretz gezerah). The root of gezerah relates to cutting or separating, giving the destination a sense of being disconnected or divided from inhabited space, rather than simply "empty" or "solitary."

In the second clause, shi.Lach ("he will let go") uses the piel stem, an intensive form suggesting a deliberate, causative sending-away rather than a passive departure. Notably, the grammatical subject of this verb is not explicitly stated in the Hebrew text itself — the goat now appears only as the marked object ('et-ha.sa'ir), meaning the "he" who releases it is implied from context rather than named within this verse.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'eretz gezerah as γῆν ἄβατον ("impassable/untrodden land"), and the Vulgate as terram solitariam ("solitary land") — both softening the Hebrew's "cutting-off" sense into ideas of remoteness or inaccessibility rather than separation. The BSB translation supplies "the man" as the explicit subject of the release, a clarification not grammatically present in the Hebrew, where the subject of shi.Lach remains unstated.