Scapegoat

This article is about "scapegoat" in its religious and ritualistic sense. For the social-psychological sense of a person or group singled out for blame, see Scapegoating. For other uses, see Scapegoat (disambiguation).
Scapegoat ceremony depicted at Lincoln Cathedral in stained glass: "[Aaron] is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat." (NIV, Leviticus 16:7–8)

In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that is released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities, while the other is sacrificed. The concept first appears in the Book of Leviticus, in which a goat is designated to be cast into the desert to carry away the sins of the community.

Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.

— Leviticus 16:21–22, New Revised Standard Version

Practices with some similarities to the scapegoat ritual also appear in Ancient Greece and Ebla.