~ The Scapegoat ~

"When Aaron has finished making atonement
for the Most Holy Place,
the tent of Meeting and the altar,
he shall bring forward the live goat.
He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat
and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion
of the Israelites --
all their sins --
and put them on the goat's heat.
He shall send the goat away into the desert
in the care of a man appointed for the task.
The goat will carry on itself
all their sins to a solitary place;
and the man shall release it in the desert.

(Leviticus 16:20-22)
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AC 9937 [8]

The removal of sins with those who are in good,
that is, those who have practiced repentance,
was represented in the Jewish Church
by the he-goat called "Asasel,"
upon the head of which Aaron was to lay his hands . . ..
By Aaron is here represented the Lord;
by "the he-goat" is signified faith;
by "the wilderness," and "the land of separation," hell;
and by "bearing thither the iniquities of the sons of Israel"
is signified to remove them, and cast them into hell.
No one can know that such things were represented,
except from the internal sense . . ..
The internal sense therefore teaches
what these things involve, namely,
that it is the truth of faith by means of which
a person is regenerated,
consequently by means of which sins are removed;
and because the faith of truth is from the Lord,
it is the Lord Himself who effects this;
That "the wilderness" denotes hell,
is because the camp in which the sons of Israel were
signified (meant) heaven;
and therefore the wilderness is called
a "land of separation," or of "cutting off."
Thus by "bearing iniquities into that land,"
that is into the wilderness,
is signified to cast evils and falsities into hell,
from which they are;
and they are cast out when they are removed
so as not to appear,
which is effected when a man is withheld from them
by being kept in good by the Lord . . ..