Leviticus 16:21

And Aaron shall lay both his hands. — With the imposition of “both his hands,” a phrase which only occurs in this ceremony, the high priest indicated in the most solemn manner possible that the animal was intended both for the priesthood and for the laity.

And confess over him all the iniquities. — This confession, which was at first extempore, was formulated during” the second Temple as follows: “O Lord, thy people, the house of Israel, have sinned, and done iniquity, and transgressed before thee. O Lord, I beseech thee, cover over the sins, the iniquities and the transgressions that thy people, the house of Israel, have sinned, have done iniquitously, and have transgressed before thee, as it is written in the Law of thy servant Moses” (Leviticus 16:30). The priests and the people who stood in the court when they heard the high priest utter the Ineffable name, Jehovah — which in the time of Christ was only pronounced on this day, and that by the pontiff — prostrated themselves, and with their faces to the ground responded, “Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever.”

Putting them upon the head of the goat. — By this imposition of hands, and the confession, the high priest transferred the sins of the nation to the goat. He then turned to the people, and declared, “Ye shall be clean.”

Send him away by the hand of a fit man. — The guilt-laden animal was then entrusted to a man previously appointed, to be conducted to the lonely region, the abode of Azazel, thus carrying back to him the sins which he enticed the people to commit during the year. The phrase which is here rendered by “a fit man,” and which occurs nowhere else in the Bible, denotes more properly a timely man, a man at hand, one appointed for the occasion. The marginal rendering, “a man of opportunity,” is still more objectionable.