As Aaron, Moses’ brother, placed his hands on the goat’s head he had confessed “over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. . . The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert” (Leviticus 16: 21-22).

This goat would carry the sins of the people to a lonely and forbidding place.