What Does Leviticus 16:21 Mean?
And Aaron leans both his hands upon the head of the living goat, and speaks into the open over him all the crookedness of the children of Israel, and all their rebellions, in all their shortcomings, setting them upon the head of the goat, and sends him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:THE KEY
The verse turns confession into a visible act of release: what is named is placed on a bearer, then sent beyond the community.
THE MEANING
Your wrongdoing is not treated as a vague stain: it is spoken aloud, placed on the goat, and carried beyond the camp. The verse names crookedness, rebellion, and missing together, then shows their release as outward movement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what has been named must remain attached to the one who names it: here the named burden is placed on another bearer and sent away.
THE ROOT
וְשִׁלַּח
veshillach
GROWS FROM
שלח
send, send forth, release, let go
“sends him away” in this verse is veshillach. The verse ends on the root of sending and release: Aaron names the burden, then sends the goat out carrying it. The declared wrongdoing is given an outward path, away from the people and toward the wilderness.
ALSO GROWS
shilluaḥ: sending away, release
שִׁלּוּחַ
This noun makes the verse’s final action explicit: the burden is released through being sent away.
shaliaḥ: messenger, one who is sent
שָׁלִיחַ
The word carries the sense of being sent beyond one’s point of origin, echoing the goat’s movement out from the community.
וְסָמַךְ
vesamakh
GROWS FROM
סמך
lean on, support
“leans” in this verse is vesamakh. The contact is more than a touch: the root carries the sense of leaning or supporting. Both hands rest on the goat before the burden is assigned to it, making the placement embodied.
ALSO GROWS
semikhah: support, leaning; laying on
סְמִיכָה
This noun preserves the root’s sense of weight-bearing contact, illuminating the hands laid upon the goat.
somekh: one who supports
סוֹמֵךְ
The participle names one who bears or upholds, resonating with the goat’s role as bearer of the named burden.
פִּשְׁעֵיהֶם
pishʿeihem
GROWS FROM
פשע
rebel, revolt, break away
“rebellions” in this verse is pishʿeihem. Alongside crookedness and failures, the verse names rebellion as part of what is carried away. The root preserves the force of breaking away inside the burden being confessed.
ALSO GROWS
pashaʿ: to rebel, revolt
פָּשַׁע
This verb shows the active rupture carried in the confession, beyond a general sense of wrongdoing.
posheaʿ: one who rebels
פֹּשֵׁעַ
This participle names the one who breaks away, showing the personal force behind the transgressions being placed on the goat.
THE PATTERN
Release becomes visible when a burden is named and pictured as carried beyond the people who bear it.
As far as the east is from the west, so far he puts our rebellions from us.He will turn back to us, and have compassion on us; he will tread down our crookedness, and you will throw all their shortcomings into the depths of the sea.The next day John perceived Jesus coming toward him, and said, Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the falling short of the world.THE THREAD
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.The same Hebrew root, שלח (shalach, send or release), sends the goat away here and calls for the people to be released in Exodus. In both verses, release takes the form of movement out from what holds.
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