Passage

Leviticus 16.21

Book: Leviticus · ASV

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"19. And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleannesses of the children of Israel. 20. And when he hath made an end of atoning for the holy place, and the tent of meeting, and the altar, he shall present the live goat:"

"21. 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, even all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a man that is in readiness into the wilderness:"

"22. and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a solitary land: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. 23. And Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting, and shall put off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there:" (Leviticus 16:19-23, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"19. He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and make it holy from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. 20. “When he has finished atoning for the Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, he shall present the live goat."

"21. Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins; and he shall put them on the head of the goat, and shall send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness."

"22. The goat shall carry all their iniquities on himself to a solitary land, and he shall let the goat go in the wilderness. 23. “Aaron shall come into the Tent of Meeting, and shall take off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the Holy Place, and shall leave them there." (Leviticus 16:19-23, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"19. And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. 20. 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:"

"21. 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: ^{a fit: Heb. a man of opportunity}"

"22. 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. ^{not: Heb. of separation} 23. And Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall put off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there:" (Leviticus 16:19-23, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"19. and he hath sprinkled on it of the blood with his finger seven times, and hath cleansed it, and hath hallowed it from the uncleannesses of the sons of Israel. 20. 'And he hath ceased from making atonement [for] the sanctuary, and the tent of meeting, and the altar, and hath brought near the living goat;"

"21. and Aaron hath laid his two hands on the head of the living goat, and hath confessed over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, and hath put them on the head of the goat, and hath sent [it] away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness;"

"22. and the goat hath borne on him all their iniquities unto a land of separation. 'And he hath sent the goat away into the wilderness, 23. and Aaron hath come in unto the tent of meeting, and hath stripped off the linen garments which he had put on in his going in unto the sanctuary, and hath placed them there;" (Leviticus 16:19-23, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Moses / narrator (Levitical legislation)
Audience: Aaron and the Levitical priesthood; Israel by extension
Location: Mount Sinai / tabernacle
Time period: events c. 1446-1406 BC; composed by Moses

Theological reading

The Day of Atonement ritual centers on two goats. The first is slain as a sin-offering; the second, the scapegoat, receives Aaron's full confession of Israel's iniquities through the symbolic transfer of laying both hands on the goat's rosh (head) before being driven into the wilderness. The head functions here as the locus of representative substitution, the place at which guilt is transferred from the people to the substitute. NT typology (Hebrews 9:7-14, 26-28; 13:11-12) reads the two-goat ritual as a unified type fulfilled in Christ, who is at once the slain sin-offering and the sin-bearing scapegoat who is "led outside the camp." The hand-laying on the rosh prefigures imputation, the legal-covenantal mechanism by which Christ becomes the bearer of His people's guilt.

Key words

H7218 - rosh, rosh (Strong's H7218). The head as locus of representative-substitutionary transfer; here the goat's head as the place where Israel's guilt is symbolically laid.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.