Texts in Conversation
Leviticus 16 has the scapegoat carry Israel's sins into an uninhabited land and never says what becomes of it. The Aramaic Targum Pseudo-Jonathan interprets this to say the goat climbs the cliffs of Beth-hadurey until the wind pushes it off and it dies.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Leviticus 16:22
Hebrew Bible
20 “When Aaron has finished purifying the Holy Place, the Meeting Tent, and the altar, he is to present the live goat. 21 Aaron is to lay his two hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the Israelites and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins, and thus he is to put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the desert by the hand of a man standing ready. 22 The goat is to bear on itself all their iniquities into an inaccessible land, so he is to send the goat away into the desert.
Pseudo Jonathan Leviticus 16:22
Targum
And Aharon shall lay his hands (upon him) in this order, his right hand upon his left, upon the head of the living goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their rebellions, and all their sins, and shall put them, with an oath uttered and expressed with the Great and glorious Name, upon the head of the goat, and send (him) away by the hand of a man prepared from the year foregoing, to take him into a rocky desert which is Beth‑hadurey; and the goat shall bear upon him all their sins into a desert place; and the man shall send forth the goat to a rocky desert; and the goat will go up on the mountains of Beth‑hadurey, and a tempestuous wind from the presence of the Lord will carry him away, and he will die.
Notes and References
“... Another important detail that appears to pertain to the scapegoat rite is the antagonist's placement into a pit situated in the wilderness. In 1 Enoch 10, the deity orders Raphael to open the pit in the desert and throw Asael into the darkness. The account further portrays the angelic scapegoat's fall into the depths of the abyss. This detail evokes the description of the scapegoat's descent, which is found in rabbinic materials where, in the final moments of the atoning rite, the go-away goat is pushed off a mountainous cliff into the abyss. [...] Targum Pseudo-Jonathan to Lev 16:22: 'The goat shall carry on himself all their sins to a desolate place; and the man shall let the goat go into the desert of Soq, and the goat shall go up on the mountains of Beth Haduri, and the blast of wind from before the Lord will thrust him down and he will die.' ...”
Orlov, Andrei A.
The Atoning Dyad: The Two Goats of Yom Kippur in the Apocalypse of Abraham
(pp. 50-51) Brill, 2016
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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