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Answer: (d) Azazel is a place where Israel's sins were sent
Read Leviticus 16:6-10
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Note: Biblical scholars give a variety of answers to the meaning of the Hebrew word Azazel. The Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Elwell, 237), for instance, list four possible meanings including the scapegoat itself, the place the scapegoat was sent, an abstract place, or the name of a demon. The NIV Bible Commentary: Volume 1: Old Testament (Barker, 144) concludes: “It is simply the designation of the goat to be taken away, the escape goat.” In part, because the Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible includes this as a possible answer, but mostly because of the answer given in the People’s Bible Commentary: Leviticus (Lenz, 141), which concludes: “Regardless of the exact definition of the Hebrew term, there is no question about the meaning of the ceremony. The sins of Israel were symbolically transferred to the goat that was led into the wilderness never to return.” Thus, “Azazel is a place where Israel's sins were sent,” provides a fair answer to the meaning of Azazel.
Barker, Kenneth J., and John Kohlenberger III, NIV Bible Commentary: Volume 1: Old Testament Zondervan Publishing House, 1994.
Elwell, Walter A., and Barry J. Beitzel. “Azazel.” Baker encyclopedia of the Bible 1988.
Lenz, Mark J. People’s Bible Commentary: Leviticus. Concordia Publishing House, 2005.
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