Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Leviticus 16:10
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, etc.] Or for Azazel, of which more hereafter in the latter part of the verse: shall be presented alive before the Lord; this seems to be a second presentation; both the goats were presented before the Lord before the lots were cast, (<031607>Leviticus 16:7); but this was afterwards, when one of the goats, according to the lot, being presented, was ordered to be killed for a sin offering, and the other according to the lot being presented alive, was ordered to remain so: to make an atonement with him; to make an atonement for the sins of the people of Israel along with the other, for they both made one sin offering, (<031606>Leviticus 16:6); and this, though spared alive for a while, yet at length was killed; and how, the Jewish writers relate, as will be after observed: [and] to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness; or, unto Azazel into the wilderness; which, some understand of a mountain in the wilderness called Azazel, to which the Targum of Jonathan has respect, which paraphrases the word, “to send him to die in a place strong and hard, which is in the wilderness of Zuck;” and so Saadiah Gaon, Jarchi, Kimchi, and others; and one in Aben Ezra says, it was near Mount Sinai; but as it is rightly observed by some, was this the name of a mountain, Moses would have called it the mountain Azazel, as he does other mountains by their names: nor is there any account of any such mountain in those parts, by such who have travelled in it, and if near Sinai, it was a long way to send it from Jerusalem; and for which there seems to be no reason, since there were many deserts between those two places: Aben Ezra suggests, there is a secret or mystery in the word Azazel, and says, you may know it and the mystery of his name, for he has companions in Scripture; and I will reveal to you, says he, part of it by a hint, when you are the son of thirty three, you may know its meaning, that is, by reckoning thirty three verses from (<031608>Leviticus 16:8); where this word is first mentioned, which will fall on (<031707>Leviticus 17:7); “they shall no more offer unto devils”; and so R. Menachem interprets Azazel of Samael, the angel of death, the devil, the prince that hath power over desolate places: there are several Christian writers of great note, that understand this of the devil, as Origen f552, among the ancients; and of the moderns, Cocceius f553, Witsius f554, and Spencer f555, who think that by these two goats is signified the twofold respect of Christ our Mediator; one to God, as a Judge, to whom he made satisfaction by his death; the other to the devil, the enemy with whom he conflicted in life; who, according to prophecy, was to be delivered up to Satan, and have his heel bruised by him; and who was to come, and did come into the wilderness of this world, and when Jerusalem was a desert, and became a Roman province; and who was led by the Spirit into wilderness of Judea, in a literal sense, to be tempted of the devil, and had a sore conflict with him in the garden, when he sweat, as it were, drops of blood; and upon the cross, when he submitted to the death of it; during which time he had the sins of all his people on him, and made an end of them, so as to be seen no more; all which agrees with (<031621>Leviticus 16:21,22); of which see more there; and it must be owned, that no other sense seems so well to agree with the type as this; since the living goat had all the sins of t…
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