What is the context?
After the sanctuary, Tent of Meeting, and altar have been purified, Aaron brings the live goat. He places both hands on its head and confesses all Israel’s iniquities, rebellious acts, and sins.
The goat carries those iniquities into a solitary place and is released. This is the passage’s explicit picture of removal. The written instruction does not say to sacrifice this goat on the altar or describe it being pushed from a cliff.
How is this passage commonly understood?
The Hebrew עֲזָאזֵל, Azazel (ah-zah-ZAYL), lies behind the BSB’s scapegoat wording earlier in the chapter. Brown–Driver–Briggs discusses entire removal and the alternative interpretation of a wilderness spirit; the USCCB notes take the name as a desert demon. These are different explanations of the term, not a second god whom Israel is told to worship.
Wesley reads the two goats as a picture of Christ’s death and deliverance. The Adventist sanctuary explanation instead identifies the final scapegoat with Satan bearing responsibility in judgment. It expressly denies that Satan’s punishment contributes to believers’ salvation, which it grounds in Christ. The readings differ materially and should not be merged or caricatured.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
1 Peter 2:21–25 explicitly says Christ bore sins in His body on the tree so that His people might die to sin and live righteously. That New Testament account grounds the saving work in Jesus and its purpose in a changed life. The claim about Christ is explicit there; the identification of every feature of this live-goat rite remains part of the interpretive comparisons above.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.