5 And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. 

7 And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 

8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat.

9 And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. 

15 Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat: 

16 And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness. 

17 And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made an atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel. 

18 And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the Lord, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about. 

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. 

25 And the fat of the sin offering shall he burn upon the altar. 

27 And the bullock for the sin offering, and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall one carry forth without the camp; and they shall burn in the fire their skins, and their flesh, and their dung. 

28 And he that burneth them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp.

Yesterday we heard how Aaron would give a sin offering for himself, and sprinkle its blood upon the mercy seat, making atonement for himself, and now we hear how he would then do the same for the congregration. However, there was a most interesting wrinkle to this particular sacrifice. Instead of bringing one goat for the sin offering, two were presented. One of them was to be slain and used for the sacrifice, the other was to be set free, though banished from the community. Which goat would serve in which function came down to a game of chance, “casting lots,” leaving the outcome in the hands of God.

For the goat that was selected to be the sacrifice, Aaron followed the same procedure for his personal sin offering, killing the goat and using its blood to sprinkle the mercy seat in the most holy place of the tabernacle. We can presume that he had to enter the holy place under the same cover of incense smoke that we heard of for his personal sin offering. After the blood of both sin offerings had been sprinkled around the mercy seat, then he would use more of their blood upon the sacrificial altar.

Then the fat of the sin offerings was burned upon the altar. It does not say that the kidneys were also burned, but likely they were, consistent with the usual procedure for sin offerings. Also consistent with the usual sin offering procedure was that the rest of the animals’ remains were carried out of the camp and burned.

Aaron had now atoned for the sins of himself and all the people, but what about that goat who was to be released into the wild? We will hear about that tomorrow.