Is Azazel a Goat, Place, Demon, or Deity?

Translations are from NRSV with slight modifications.

^{ויקרא טז:י} וְהַשָּׂעִיר אֲשֶׁר עָלָה עָלָיו הַגּוֹרָל לַעֲזָאזֵל יָעֳמַד־חַי לִפְנֵי יְ־הוָה לְכַפֵּר עָלָיו לְשַׁלַּח אֹתוֹ לַעֲזָאזֵל הַמִּדְבָּרָה׃

^{Lev 16:10} but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before YHWH to make atonement over it, in order to send it to Azazel in the desert.

^{ויקרא טז:כו} וְהַמְשַׁלֵּחַ אֶת־הַשָּׂעִיר לַעֲזָאזֵל יְכַבֵּס בְּגָדָיו וְרָחַץ אֶת־בְּשָׂרוֹ בַּמָּיִם וְאַחֲרֵי־כֵן יָבוֹא אֶל־הַמַּחֲנֶה׃

^{Lev 16:26} The one who sets the goat free for Azazel shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward may come into the camp.

Stefan Schorch, The Samaritan Pentateuch: Leviticus: A Critical Editio Maior (Berlin: de Gruyter 2018), 137.

^כו:11 ...והתודה על רואשו את כול עוונות בני ישראל עם ^כו:12 כול אשמתמה לכול חטאתמה ונתנמה על רואש השעיר ושלחו ^כו:13 לעזזאל המדבר ביד איש אתי ונשא השעיר את כול עוונות...

^26:11 …And he shall confess upon its head all the iniquities of the children of Israel, with ^26:12 all of their guilt through all of their sins, and they shall be placed upon the head of the goat, and he sends it ^26:13 to ʿAzazʾel to the wilderness in the hands of a designated individual, and the goat will carry all of the iniquities…

This is the end of column 26, and the beginning of the next column (27) is missing. Azazel was apparently also mentioned earlier in column 26, in ln 4, which describes the lot to be placed on each goat. But as the scroll is damaged there, and the word needs to be reconstructed, the spelling can only be deduced from the word’s appearance in ln 13.

The root means “rage” in Akkadian as well as in other East-Semitic languages, while in Hebrew and West-Semitic languages the prevailing semantic domain is that of “strength”: see Wolfram von Soden, Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1972), 2:269 ff. For a full discussion, see Manfred Dietrich and Oswald Loretz, “Der biblische Azazel und AlT* 126,” Ugarit Forschungen 25 (1993): 99–117.

Bernd Janowski and Gernot Wilhelm, “Der Bock, der die Sünden hinausträgt. Zur Religionsgeschichte des Azazel-Ritus Lev 16,10.21,” in Religionsgeschichtliche Beziehungen zwischen Kleinasien, Nordsyrien und dem Alten Testament, ed. Bernd Janowski, Klaus Koch, and Gernot Wilhelm (Freiburg: Universitätsverlag ; Göttingen : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1993), 109–169.

Editor’s note: For a discussion of this ritual in its ancient Near Eastern context, see Noga Ayali-Darshan, “The Scapegoat Ritual and Its Ancient Near Eastern Parallels,” TheTorah (2020).

See also v. 22, where the destination of the scapegoat is said to be an eretz gezerah, a “cut off land.”

The verb appears in two different grammatical forms:

^{Lev 16:8} καὶ ἐπιθήσει Ααρων ἐπὶ τοὺς δύο χιμάρους κλήρους κλῆρον ἕνα τῷ κυρίῳ καὶ κλῆρον ἕνα τῷ ἀποπομπαίῳ

^{Lev 16:8} And Aaron will place lots on the two goats, one lot for the Lord and one lot for the one who wards off (evil) (τῷ ἀποπομπαίῳ).

^{Lev 16:10} καὶ τὸν χίμαρον ἐφ᾽ ὃν ἐπῆλθεν ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν ὁ κλῆρος τοῦ ἀποπομπαίου στήσει αὐτὸν ζῶντα ἔναντι κυρίου τοῦ ἐξιλάσασθαι ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῦ ὥστε ἀποστεῖλαι αὐτὸν εἰς τὴν ἀποπομπήν ἀφήσει αὐτὸν εἰς τὴν ἔρημον

^{Lev 16:10} and the goat upon which has felt the lot for the one who wards off (τοῦ ἀποπομπαίου), (Aaron) will place it alive before the Lord, to make atonement on him, so that he will send it for the “warding off” (τὴν ἀποπομπήν), for the release in the desert.

The first occurrence in verse ten makes use of the same word, while the second uses what may be a neologism (i.e., a word invented by the author) from the same root, apopompḗ, “the act of averting”, of “getting rid”, a term which was also used in magical and apotropaic contexts.

Hesychius, Lexicon A 6552; Harpocration, Lexicon Alpha 199; Lysias, Against Andocides 6.53; Callimachus, Aetia fr. 75.12–14 (Pfeiffer).

My translation of these verses, as explained above, differs from the very literal rendering provided by NETS. See also Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra, The Impact of Yom Kippur on Early Christianity: The Day of Atonement from Second Temple Judaism to the Fifth Century (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003), 102-106.

^{Lev 16:26} καὶ ὁ ἐξαποστέλλων τὸν χίμαρον τὸν διεσταλμένον εἰς ἄφεσιν πλυνεῖ τὰ ἱμάτια καὶ λούσεται τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ ὕδατι καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα εἰσελεύσεται εἰς τὴν παρεμβολήν

The term ampopompaîos in LXX could theoretically refer to one of the goats (chimaros), although this is not the most probable reading of the Greek text.” For details See Anna Angelini, L’imaginaire du démoniaque dans la Septante. Une analyse comparée de la notion de demon dans la Septante et dans la Bible Hébraïque (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 94-100.

^{Her. 1:179} καταπλήττει με καὶ ἡ τῶν προσαγομένων τῷ ἱλασμῷ δυεῖν τράγων ἐπίκρισις ὁμοῦ καὶ διανομὴ τεμνομένων ἀδήλῳ καὶ ἀτεκμάρτῳ τομεῖ, κλήρῳ· λόγων γὰρ δυεῖν ὁ μὲν τὰ τῆς θείας ἀρετῆς πραγματευόμενος ἀνιεροῦται καὶ ἀνατίθεται θεῷ, ὁ δὲ τὰ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης κακοδαιμονίας ἐζηλωκὼς γενέσει τῇ φυγάδι· καὶ γὰρ ὃν ἔλαχεν αὕτη κλῆρον, ἀποπομπαῖον καλοῦσιν οἱ χρησμοί, ἐπειδὴ μετανίσταται καὶ διῴκισται καὶ μακρὰν ἀπελήλαται σοφίας.

John Wevers, Leviticus, Septuaginta: Vetus Testamentum Graecum 2/2 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986), ad loc.

Editor’s note: For more on this story, see Benjamin Sommer, “Why Are There Demigods in a Monotheistic Torah?” TheTorah (2015).

The text is lost, though copies of it apparently existed into the 17^th century. We know the text from quotes. In this case, the story was preserved in the Yalkut Shimoni on Genesis 6, and from there, it appears both in Adolph Jellenick’s Beit Midrasch (vol. 4, p. 127) and Judah D. Eisenstein’s Otzar HaMidrashim (s.v. שמחזאי ועזאל א, p. 550).

Here the text explains the Azazel ritual:

ולכך היו ישראל מקריבין קרבנות ביוה"כ איל אחד לה' שיכפר על בני ישראל ואיל אחד לעזאזל שיסבול עונותיהם של ישראל...

Therefore, Israel would offer sacrifices on Yom Kippur, one ram to God to atone for the Israelites and one ram to Azazel, so that he will suffer with the sins of the Israelites…

Notably, the text here refers to rams while the biblical text refers to goats.

The reemergence of Second Temple traditions here fits with a pattern we see in several late midrashic collections such as Pirkei de-rabbi Eliezer and Midrash Tadsche. See discussion in, Rachel Adelman, The Return of the Repressed: Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Pseudepigrapha (Leiden: Brill 2009). For a discussion of this story’s reemergence in Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, see eadem, “Reintroducing the Myth of the Fallen Angels into Judaism,” TheTorah (2015). For a brief discussion of this text in the context of Second Temple myths, see Samuel Glaser, “Demigods and the Birth of Noah,” TheTorah (2020).

The connection between these angels and the introduction of sin is based on the fact that in Genesis, this story appears immediately before the description of humanity’s violence and corruption in the opening of the Noah story. This theme was the basis of long expansions of the angels’ part in humanity’s fall, known as “the myth of Watchers.” It is told at length in the book of 1 Enoch 6–11, where the leading angel is Shemhazi, and a list of other angels, including one named Asael (meaning “God has made”), take part. (This version of the story is evidently the source for the retelling in Midrash Avkir quoted above.) For more on the watchers, see Miryam Brand, “The Benei-Elohim, the Watchers, and the Origins of Evil,” TheTorah (2016).

The reading and reconstruction follow, Elisha Qimron, מגילות מדבר יהודה: החיבורים העבריים [The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew Writings], בין מקרא למשנה [Between Bible and Mishnah] (Jerusalem: Yad Ben Zvi, 2013), 2.296. While other reconstructions differ, the gist remains the same.

Many believe this to be an expansion, with Azazel apparently identified with the Asael listed in ch. 6, though the two originated as distinct figures. Loren Stuckenbruck, The Book of Giants from Qumran (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997); Siam Bhayro, The Shemihazah and Asael Narrative of 1 Enoch 6-11: Introduction, Text, Translation and Commentary with Reference to Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Antecedents (Münster, Ugarit-Verlag, 2005). It is unclear when the association between Asael and Azazel first occurred, although the Qumran fragments demonstrate that in Palestinian traditions the biblical demon Azazel was certainly associated with the myth of Watchers by the 1^st century B.C.E. at least, possibly even by the 2^nd century B.C.E. As pointed out by Miryam Brand, Asael—literally “God has made”—sounds like an appropriate name for an angel, while at the same time it is reminiscent of the biblical Azazel.

Translation from Outside the Bible, 2.1370.

Outside the Bible, 2.1371

Outside the Bible, 2.1372.

Stökl Ben Ezra, The Impact of Yom Kippur, 85–95.

In this retelling, it isn’t YHWH but an angel speaking with Abraham.

^{Apoc. Abr. 13:7} And he said to him: “Reproach is on you, Azazel! Since Abraham’s portion is in heaven, and yours is on earth, ^13:8 since you have chosen it and desired it to be the dwelling place of your impurity. Therefore the Eternal LORD, the Mighty One, has made you a dweller on earth. ^13:9 And because of you [there is] wholly evil spirit of the lie, and because of you [there are] wrath and trials on the generations of impious men…. ^13:12 Depart from this Man! ^13:13 You cannot deceive him, because he is the enemy of you and of those who follow you and who love what you desire. ^13:14 For behold, the garment that in heaven was formerly yours has been set aside for him, and the corruption that was on him has gone over to you.

It continues with:

^14:6 Since your inheritance are those who are with you, with men born with the stars and clouds, and their portion is you, and they come into being through your being. ^14:7 And justice is your enmity. Therefore through your own destruction vanish from before me.

Translation from James H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (New York: Doubleday, 1983), 1.969.

Another text that might include Azael among the archangels is Sibylline Oracles 2:215, which describes several archangels (Barakiel, Ramiel, Uriel, Samiel, and Azael) leading the souls of sinners to judgment. Nevertheless, this appears only in MS φ. John Collins, however, prefers MS ψ, which has the standard panoply of archangels (Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel) and no Azael. See his note in Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1.350. If the Azael text is correct, then it would fit with the view of this angel in Testament of Solomon.

Wolfgang Fauth, “Auf den Spuren des biblischen Azazel (Lev 16). Einige Residuen der Gestalt oder des Namens in jüdisch-aramäischen, griechischen, koptischen, äthiopischen, syrischen und mandäischen Texten,” ZAW 110 (1998): 514–534.

Karl Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae Magicae II (Leipzig: Teubner, 1931), P 14, 3 (Christliches). Notably, here, in the Testament of Solomon, and in the Sibylline Oracles (in some MSS), Azazel is positive, and all three are Christian sources.

If we compare just transcriptions of the name in the Qumranic, Coptic and Greek versions of the book of Enoch, we find at least five: ‘aza’zel, asael, aśael, azael, azalzel. 4Q201 3 9; 4Q203 7 1 6; 4Q204 2 26; 1En 6:7.