THE GOAT. 77 



ces of the importance of historical and local information to a right 

 understanding of the sacred writings. 



In Lev. xvii. 7, we read, ' And they shall no more offer their 

 sacrifices unto devils, [or hairy ones]. The word here means the 

 idolatrous images of goats worshipped by the Egyptians. It is 

 the same word that is translated Satyrs,' in Isa. xiii. 21 ; where 

 the LXX render it damons. Maimonides gives light to this 

 obscure passage, by informing us, that the Zabian idolaters wor- 

 shipped demons under the figure of goats, imagining them to 

 appear in that form; whence they called them by the name of 

 Seirimliairy or shaggy onesand that the custom being spread 

 among other nations, gave occasion to this precept. 



There is a precept in Ex. xxiii. 19, repeated in xxxiv. 26, and 

 Deut. xiv. 21, which alludes, no doubt, to some superstitious rite, 

 used by the idolatrous nations in honor of their gods. A Caraite 

 Jew, quoted by Cudworth, affirms, that it was customary among 

 them to boil a kid in the milk of its mother, and with the decoction 

 besprinkle, in a magical manner, the fields and gardens, thinking, 

 by this means, they should make them fructify. 



There was one ceremonial offering of the goat, under the Mosaic 

 economy, of too extraordinary a character to be passed by unno- 

 ticed : we mean tha scape-goat of the great day of atonement. 

 The ceremony is described in Lev. xyi. Having received the two 

 goats at the hands of the representatives of the congregation, the 

 high priest proceeded to cast lots, for determining that which 

 should be ' for the Lord,' i. e. sacrificed ; and that which should be ' for 

 Azazel,' i, e, for the scape-goat. This being settled, and the one mark- 

 ed out for the sacrifice having been slain, and the mercy -seat sprink- 

 led with its blood, the scape-goat was to be sent away into the wilder- 

 ness ; which was done in the following manner: The high priest, 

 and the stationary-men, who represented the whole congregation 

 of the people, laid their hands upon its head, and confessed over it 

 all the iniquities of the people, and all their transgressions in all 

 their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, verses 20, 21. By 

 this ceremony, says Witsius, the sinner deprecated the wrath of 

 God, and prayed that it might fall on the head of that victim which 

 he put in his own stead. This being done, it was delivered to the 

 person appointed to lead it away, that he might bear away all their 

 iniquities to a land of separation, where they should be remember- 

 ed no more, verse 22. It is observable, that the two goats seem to 

 make but one sacrifice ; yet only one of them was slain. Hence, 

 they have been thought to point out both the divine and human 

 natures of the Saviour, and to typify both his death and resurrec- 

 tion. The goat which was slain prefigured his human nature and 

 his death; and the scape-goat pointed out his resurrection : the 

 one represented the atonement made for the sins of the world, as 

 the ground of justification ; the other, Christ's victory, and the 

 removal of sin, in the sanctification of the soul. 

 The hair of the goat is of two kinds ; the one, long and coarse, 

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