in Jewish antiquity, the goat which was set at liberty on the great day of expiation.

Spencer is of opinion, that the scape-goat was called Azazel, because it was sent to Azazel, i.e., the devil; the reasons of which ceremony, he takes to be these: 1. That the goat, loaded with the sins of the people, and sent to Azazel, might denote the miserable condition of the sinners. 2. The goat was sent thus loaded to the demons, to shew that they were impure, and to deter the people from worshipping them. 3. That the goat sent to Azazel sufficiently expiating the sins of the Israelites, they might the more willingly abstain from the expiatory sacrifices of the heathens.