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He then entered into the holy of holies, with his 'cenfer in one hand, and a large quantity of fine incenfe beaten

TOTOUT, and the Latin after them emiffarius (67): and, it is certain, that the verb N, azal, is often ufed in that fenfe in the Old Teftament (68). However, from Mofes's words (69), it fhould rather feem, that Azazel is the name of the place, whither the goat was led; for he fays, that the man who lets the goat go by, lebazazel, which laft can not properly be rendered any other way than, to Hazazel; and in this fenfe most of the Jews, and fome Chriftians, have taken it (70); and fome of the former tell us, that it is a mountain diftant about ninety furlongs, or about eleven thoufand paces, from Jerufalem |(71).

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that this fcape-goat was fent, with its load of fins, to the devil; in which notion he is followed by fome others (74), who believe, that both the facrificed goat, and the fcape one, were typical of CHRIST; and think the firft to be figni fcative of his death, and the other of his being exposed to, and overcoming the power of Satan. But as for us, we fhould rather prefer Mr. Le Clerc's opinion, that Hazazel was a fteep and cragged precipices down which the goat was thrown and this is not only more agreeable to the original, as we obferved above, and to the Jewish notion of its being a rocky mountain; but the fame author has further proved it from the words of Mofes, that it should bear all their iniquities

And here we cannot but take notice of a strange notion which Spencer has taken into his head, pin x, el eretz Geza, that this Hazazel was neither rab (75), which doth properly the name of a place, nor of fignify, not only an uninhabited, the fcape-goat, but of a devil, land, or a land of feparation, unto whom the goat was fent as our verfion renders it, but & by the meffenger (72). He land that is cut off, or broken mentions one Mark, an arch- off from another, fuch as preheretic, who pretended to have cipices are. It might also be a demon of that name, by probably enough called Haza, whofe affiftance he performed xel, from its being inhabited wonders (73); and from this, only by goats, as Hottinger ob and fome expreffions which he ferved in his notes upon Good found in fome cabbalistical win. Le Clerc doth further writings, and in thofe of Ju- confirm it by a new etylian the apoftate, he pretends, mon of the word Azazel,

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(67) LXX. Aquil. Symmach. Theodoret. Bochart. de animal. facr. Marfo fecul. ix. Pagn. Jun. & al. (68) Vide Kimch. in rad. Buxtorf. thef. in (69) Levit. xvi. 25. (76) Munft. Ar. Mont. & al. (71) Targ Fmath. RR. Saad. Gaon. Kimch. Salom. Abenez. & al. (72). Differe birc, emiffar. (73) Vide Epiphan, bæref. 34. (74) Turretia.

Cuces. Alting, Meyer, & al. (75) Levit, xvi, 22. Pide Le Clerc in loc.

fmall in the other, that the smoke of it might fill the place, fo as to cover the mercy-feat from fight and as foon as he had fet the cenfer upon the altar, he came out, and dipped his fingers into the blood of the bullock, which he had offered for himself, and went and fprinkled it towards the mercy-feat eaftward feven times. This done, he killed the goat for the people's fin-offering, and went and fprinkled the mercy-feat with the blood of it, as he had done with that of the bullock; and by these afperfions the tabernacle was purified from all the pollution it had contracted, by ftanding in the midft of that finful people. During all this ceremony, that is, till the folemn atonement had been made for the fins of the priests and people, neither priefts, nor any perfon, were permitted to come, either within the tabernacle, or even into the courts of it.

As foon as thefe ablutions were ended, and the priests and people purified, the goat, whofe lot it had been to efcape (V), was brought to the high-prieft, who laid his

which we fhall not dwell upon, Neither is it easy to guess, either what was done to the goat, or what became of it, after it was brought to the place appointed. The Talmudifts, if we may rely on them, affirm, that it was thrown down a precipice, and broken in pieces by the fall. They add, that during the high-priesthood of Simon, furnamed the Juft, which was fignalized by many remarkable tokens of the divine favour, the goat ufed to fall in pieces before it had reached half way to the bottom; but that, after his days, it used to be caught and caten by the Saracens (76).

(V) How these lots were cast doth not appear from Scripture. What the antient Jews tell us of it is, that there was an urn brought unto the high-prieft, into which he threw two

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wooden lots, upon one of which were written the words, FOR THE LORD; and on the other, FOR AZAZEL; and, after he had fhaken them, he put both his hands into the urn, and brought up the lots, the one in his right-hand, and the other in his left; and as the goats ftood on each fide of him, their fate was determined by the lot that came up in the hand next to them. They alfo ufed to draw a good omen of GoD's being pacified with them; if the right-hand chanc ed to draw the lot that was for the LORD, as they fay it hap pened all the time of the highprieft mentioned in the laft note. As for the rest of their customs, observed on that day, fuch as their mutual asking and granting forgiveness for paft offences, making reftitution, and

(76) Miskn, traft. NOV), vide & Maim, in 1927 01.

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hands upon its head, and confeffed his own fins, and those of the whole nation, in words to this effect: O LORD, thy people, the house of Ifrael, have finned, have rebelled against thee ---and now, O LORD, I beseech thee, fors give their fins, rebellions, and backflidings, by which they have offended thee, according as it is written in the law of thy fervant Mofes: in that day he shall make atonement for you, he shall cleanse you, and you shall be clean from all your fins

the like, though they are probably as old, or very near, as the inftitution of this feaft, yet we rather chuse to refer our readers for them to the two laft quoted books; or, if he pleafes, to Leo de Modena and Buxtorf (76).

One thing, however, is worth obferving, that on the eve of this folemnity the Jews of old used to take a white cock, if it was to be had, if not, of any other colour but red, and after a prayer, they ftruck their heads with that of the cock three times, faying, Bear thou my fins, fuffer thou the death I have deferved, die thou for me, and make thou reconciliation for me, that 1 may be admitted into a bleffed life, with all the people of Ifrael. After which they killed the cock, confeffing that they deserved the death they inflicted on him, and threw his entrails on the top of the house, in hopes that the crows would bear them and their fins into the wilderness. 'Tis true, this ceremony is looked upon by the Dutch Jews as finful, and that Leo de Modena, who owns that it was practifed heretofore in the Levant and Italy, adds, that it was afterwards left off,

because it was found to be a mère piece of fuperftition, for which no tolerable reason could be affigned. But he seems to have forgot that they gave one, which, however ridiculed by our learned Goodwin, is not without a fingular meaning. It is this: the word 2, geber, in the Scripture, fignifying a man ; and in the Talmud and Chaldee, a cock; the divine juftice required, that as geber in the first sense had finned, geber in the other fense should bear his fin. Now what other foundation can this cuftom have than the prophecies, that the MESSIAH, as geber, in his hu man nature, fhould expiate for the fins of man? unto whom therefore they fubftituted this typical geber, cock, till the antitypical one fhould accomplish that expiation by his death. And might not the Chriftians urging this against them be the motive of their abolishing it? Might not, moreover, the Tguara of the Gentiles, those human victims, which they chofe out of the dregs of the people, to facrifice yearly to their gods, by way of expiation (77), and their nabásμara, which they offered in times of

(76) Carem. Fud. part iii. c. 6. Vide & Buxtorf. fynagog, Jud. c. 20. (77) Vide Suid. in već, repítnua.

VOL. III.

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