And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations.
Devils, х las`iyrim (H8163)] - goats. The Septuagint has tois mataiois, vanities, non-entities-an unhappy translation, which entirely destroys the allusion contained in the word, which, meaning hairy, rough, describes the actual figure of the animals worshipped. Herodotus says that Pan was represented with the 'face and legs of a goat.' No Egyptian god is really represented in this way ('Ancient Egypt.' vol. 1:, p. 260); but the goat, according to some Egyptologers, was the symbol and representative of Khem, the Pan of the Egyptians (Wilkingon, in Rawlinson's 'Herodotus,' b. 2:, ch. 42:, note 7; and ch. 46:, note 4; also Bunson's 'Egypt,' vol
i., p. 374). Gesenius renders the term used here wood-demons;' and our translators have rendered it 'satyrs' (Isaiah 13:21), conformably to the notions in the Greek mythology, of Silenus and the Fauni as brutes with the heads and faces of men. And accordingly some suppose that the reference is to large apes of the baboon form (Macacus Arabicus), which have been discovered on the banks of the Euphrates, powerful, fierce, and libidinous animals, herding in troops, not living in trees, but roving like wild men through the brushwood and jungle. But qopiym (H6971) is the word used for apes (1 Kings 10:22).
Seirim means goats in all other passages; and there is not only no reason why the word should not be used in its common acceptation here, but the strongest reason for preferring goats to devils. Goat-worship was a form of idolatry enthusiastically practiced by the Egyptians, particularly in the nome or province of Mendes. Pan was supposed especially to preside over mountainous and desert regions; and it was while they were in the wilderness the Israelites seem to have been powerfully influenced by a feeling to propitiate this idol. Moreover, the ceremonies observed in this idolatrous worship were extremely licentious and obscene, and the gross impurity of the rites gives great point and significance to the expression of Moses, "they have gone awhoring" (see the note at 2 Chronicles 11:15).