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Leviticus 16:10,20-22:
But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement
with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.
And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he
shall bring the live goat: 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 shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: And the goat shall bear
upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. |
A black pearl represents the other goat, the
scapegoat. Black because of the sin it would carry, a pearl
because it also acted as an atonement, a role of making something of
no worth worthy to approach God.
Aaron symbolically placed all the sins, all
the iniquities, all the transgressions of the people on the head of
the scapegoat. This goat, with the sins of the people,
was led into the wilderness and let go. This act symbolized
the removal and separation of sin from the people. The people
played no active role in this atonement. Instead another
being, represented here by the goat,
acted as their substitute and carried their sin far away from them.
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