What does the word 'scapegoat' mean today?
The word 'scapegoat' today means a person who takes the blame for the wrongs and sins of someone else. It describes the poor fellow blamed for another's wrongdoing, just as the live goat in Israel's ritual symbolically carried the people's sins into the wilderness.
Les explains that in the Levitical ritual, two goats were chosen by lot. One goat was designated for the Lord and was sacrificed. The other goat remained alive as the scapegoat. The live goat had the sins of Israel symbolically placed upon it and was taken alive into the unknown, untracked wilderness and let go. Les notes that this Judean wilderness is uninhabitable, barren, and God-forsaken, unlike our part of Oklahoma. Today, the term scapegoat still refers to the poor fellow who takes the blame for someone else's wrongs and sins.