an adult male goat, the he-goat that heads the flock
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
At its root this is simply the mature male goat, the he-goat. It turns up as ordinary livestock and wealth, as an item of trade, and above all as an animal brought for sacrifice, where it stands beside rams and bulls in the offering lists.
Because the he-goat walks at the front of the flock, the word became a natural picture for the leaders of a people. When the prophets call kings and chiefs the he-goats of the earth, they mean the ones out in front: the strong who set the direction, and sometimes the strong who shove the weak aside. That image can carry a call to lead, a charge against bad leaders, or a warning that God will deal with them.
Both uses are one word doing a single thing. It names the strong male at the head of the herd, then lends that picture to the people who lead.
Nuances
1aa male goat: the animal itself, kept as livestock, valued as wealth or trade, or brought for sacrifice
keeps the pastoral image of the he-goat heading the flock, and with it the note of the strong ones who go first and sometimes push the weak asideEzk 34:17Isa 14:9
Both
both point to those who go at the head of a group and set its courseIsa 14:9Jer 50:8
Only chief ones
an English word like leaders sounds neutral and administrative, losing the animal metaphor entirely
“goat”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How attud differs from similar Hebrew words
שָׂעִירthe shaggy male goat, the standard goat of the sin offering; this word instead pictures the male goat as the strong one leading the flock.
Stands figuratively for the leading men, chiefs, and rulers of a people, the strong ones who go at the head of the flock, a sense the other word never carries.Isa 14:9Jer 50:8Zec 10:3
Names the he-goat as a prized animal of the flock and a piece of property, the strong breeding males of the herd and the goats one buys and sells at market.Gen 31:10Pro 27:26Ezk 27:21
Both
Both name the male goat presented to God in worship, and the prophets pair them when condemning sacrifice offered without obedience, the empty heaping up of bulls and goats.Isa 1:11Psa 66:15Lev 9:3
Is the fixed term for the goat brought as a sin offering throughout the festival calendar, the one specified animal that purges the people's guilt day by day.Num 28:15Num 29:5Lev 4:23
Names the two goats of the Day of Atonement, one killed for the Lord and one sent away into the wilderness bearing the nation's sins, a role unique to this word.Lev 16:8Lev 16:10Lev 16:21
Also denotes a shaggy goat-shaped spirit of the waste places, an object of false worship that this word can mean but the other cannot.Lev 17:72Ch 11:15Isa 13:21
עֵזthe generic goat or goat-herd, often the female or the flock as a whole; this word is specifically the mature male that heads it.
The ram is the leading animal of Israel's major sacrifices: the ordination of priests, the guilt offering, and the Day of Atonement all call for it.Exo 29:1Lev 5:15Lev 16:3
It names the specific animal caught for Abraham in place of his son, and its dyed skins covered the tabernacle.Gen 22:13Exo 25:5
צָפִירthe he-goat term favored in the later books such as Daniel and Ezra; this word is the older, more poetic term that also carries the leader metaphor.
Used figuratively for the leading men of a nation, the chiefs and rulers pictured as the strong he-goats at the head of the flock.Isa 14:9Ezk 34:17Zec 10:3
Names ordinary male goats within the working flock, the breeding rams among the herds.Gen 31:10Gen 31:12
Both
Both name a male goat brought as a sacrificial offering.Num 7:17Ezr 8:35
Stands as the symbolic he-goat of a prophetic vision, the single beast that pictures a world empire.Dan 8:5Dan 8:8Dan 8:21
attud in the other biblical languages
τράγοςGreek“he-goat”the Greek he-goat of the sacrificial system, named with bulls in Hebrews as blood that could not truly cleanse; the closest counterpart to this word's sacrificial use.
Appears only in the argument that the blood of goats can never take away sins, pointing beyond animal sacrifice to Christ.Heb 9:12Heb 10:4
ἔριφοςGreek“a goat”the Greek goat or kid set against the sheep at the last judgment; a goat term, but without this word's note of the strong male that leads.
Names the young goat or kid slaughtered for an ordinary celebratory meal shared with friends.Luk 15:29
Serves as the image of those set on the left and condemned at the final judgment, the goats separated out from the sheep.Mat 25:32
What scholars say about attud
The noun denotes the mature male goat, the he-goat, and is commonly connected with a root meaning to be ready or prepared, hence the prime or ready animal of the flock. It appears widely as livestock and as a sacrificial victim listed with rams and bulls. From the male goat's role at the front of the flock the standard lexica derive a figurative sense, the chief ones or leaders of a people, attested at Isaiah 14:9,Jeremiah 50:8,Ezekiel 34:17, and Zechariah 10:3. In several judgment oracles (Isaiah 34:6;Jeremiah 51:40;Ezekiel 39:18) the animal terms function within a slaughter-as-sacrifice image in which the beasts represent doomed peoples, though the word there retains its literal referent.