Goat

Goats were herded alongside sheep for milk, hair, and meat, and provided one of the ordinary animals for the sin offering. Hardy and independent, they mingled with the flock by day but were often penned separately at night — a everyday scene Jesus would draw on.

Their greatest role came on the Day of Atonement. Two goats were taken: one was sacrificed, and over the other the high priest confessed the nation’s sins before sending it away into the wilderness — the “scapegoat” that carried the people’s guilt far off, out of the camp. Together the two goats pictured sin both paid for and removed.

Jesus also used goats for the final judgment, when the Son of Man “shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats,” the sheep at his right and the goats at his left. Hebrews insists the blood of goats could never truly take away sins — it pointed forward to the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ.