The Day of Atonement, held the tenth day of the seventh month of the year, was an exceptionally hallowed ancient Israelite festival. It focused on a number of symbols and rituals that pertained to the Atonement, such as the sacrifice of a bull and a goat, the confession of sins on the head of a second goat (the scapegoat), the sprinkling of blood on the altar, and the high priest’s entrance into the temple’s Holy of Holies.
The directive regarding the scapegoat was straightforward: “And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat. . . . And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited” (Lev. 16:21–22). It was during the Day of Atonement that the high priest made atonement for the tabernacle and the altar, for the priests, and for the people: “And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year” (Lev. 16:34).