The now commonly-used English term “scapegoat” (meaning a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others) was first coined in 1530 in the English Pentateuch translation of William Tyndale (in the spelling scapegoote, meaning “the goat that escaped”). (Source: Crystal 2010, p. 278)
In the New English Bible, it is translated as “the Precipice,” while in other English versions it can also be translated as “Azazel,” referring to a demon (see Translation commentary on Leviticus 16:8 and thanks Elizabeth Lewis).
The Greek and Hebrew that is typically translated as “covenant” or “testimony” in English and refers to the stone tablets that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai are translated in Kupsabiny as “two stones (that are flat-and-thin) on which the law is written,” in Hiligaynon as “the wide stone on which is-written the Law.” (Source: Kupsabiny and Hiligaynon Back-Translations), and in the interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) as miyala iŵiri ija yolembedwapo mau a chipangano or “those two stones on which are written the words of the agreement” (Source: Wendland 1998, p. 110).
In the EnglishTranslation for Translators it is translated as stone slabs and in the New English Bible as Tokens (source: Elizabeth Lewis).
