In the Yom Kippur Temple service, lots were drawn over two goats. The lottery determined which goat would be offered to God and which would become the scapegoat, sent away into the wilderness.
The ritual is described in Leviticus 16 and later explained in detail by the Mishnah’s tractate Yoma. The High Priest presented the two goats together, then used the lots to assign their roles. The selected offering goat was sacrificed, and its blood was used in the atonement rites. The other goat symbolically carried the people’s sins away from the community.
The lottery involved two animals, not two lots over a larger group. The number can also be confused with the other animals in the service, including the High Priest’s bull and additional offerings. After the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, the original procedure could no longer be performed, though its memory remains central to Yom Kippur liturgy.