Day of Atonement

The Day of Atonement is the annual rite through which Israel’s high priest makes atonement for himself, the people, and the sanctuary, cleansing the community from sin and impurity. Its once-yearly sequence joins restricted access to the holy place with sacrifice, blood purification, confession, and the dispatch of a live goat into the wilderness; the whole people mark the day with rest and self-affliction.

Annual Observance and Restricted Access

The rite is prescribed for the tenth day of the seventh month. It is a holy convocation and a sabbath of solemn rest: native-born Israelites and resident strangers are to afflict themselves and do no work, with observance lasting from evening to evening. The law warns that refusing this observance brings exclusion or destruction from among the people.

The ritual is framed by the deaths of Aaron’s two sons after they approached the LORD. Aaron is therefore forbidden to enter the holy place behind the veil whenever he chooses: entry before the ark-cover is subject to a prescribed procedure, because the LORD appears in a cloud over it.

The High Priest’s Sequence of Offerings

Aaron first bathes and puts on the holy linen garments. He presents a bull for his own sin-offering and makes atonement for himself and his household; the congregation supplies two male goats for a sin-offering and a ram for a burnt-offering. Lots distinguish the goats: one is assigned to the LORD and offered as a sin-offering, while the other is kept alive for Azazel.

Aaron takes a censer of altar coals and finely beaten incense behind the veil. The incense cloud covers the ark-cover over the testimony, and Aaron sprinkles the bull’s blood on and before the ark-cover, seven times. He then kills the people’s goat and brings its blood inside, repeating the blood rite to make atonement for the holy place, which must be cleansed of the Israelites’ uncleannesses, transgressions, and sins.

No one else is to remain in the tent of meeting while Aaron performs this atonement. After completing the rites within, he puts blood from the bull and goat on the horns of the altar and sprinkles it seven times, cleansing and hallowing the altar from Israel’s impurities. The ritual thus extends beyond the people to the holy place, the tent of meeting, and the altar in their midst.

The Live Goat and Removal of Sin

When the sanctuary and altar have been atoned for, Aaron places both hands on the live goat’s head and confesses over it all the iniquities, transgressions, and sins of the Israelites. An appointed man leads the goat away into the wilderness, to a land cut off; the goat bears the people’s iniquities away from the community.

Aaron then returns to the tent of meeting, removes the linen garments and leaves them there, bathes, and changes into his other vestments. He offers burnt-offerings for himself and the people and makes atonement for them. The bull and the goat whose blood was brought into the holy place are carried outside the camp and burned; those who release the live goat or burn the carcasses must wash their clothes and bathe before returning to the camp.

Purification, Community, and Continuity

The day’s stated purpose is to cleanse the Israelites from all their sins before the LORD. The law makes the rite an everlasting statute, performed once a year by the priest anointed and consecrated to succeed his father; his work covers the most holy place, the tent of meeting, the altar, the priests, and the entire assembly.

The festival calendar repeats the date and communal obligations: on the tenth day of the seventh month, the people assemble, afflict themselves, bring an offering made by fire, and refrain from work. The procedure makes purification a collective observance as well as a priestly service, while its ordered movements between sanctuary, altar, camp, and wilderness set apart the holy space and mark the removal of the people’s sins.