What does “Azazel” mean?

Critics argue that the term “Azazel” refers to a demon –not a goat. This Hebrew term is used only here in the entire Bible. However, it is used of a demon in the apocryphal book of Enoch (200 BC). Does this passage describe the sacrificing of offerings to demons like Azazel?

The term “scapegoat” (ʿăzāʾzēl) comes from the root words “go away” (ʾzl) and “goat” (ʿz). The LXX and Vulgate render the word this as a scapegoat for this reason.^[1] This goat is “sent it into the wilderness” (v.10). All of this supports the traditional reading of this term.

Some think that this word refers to a demon. After all, the word for “scapegoat” (ʿăzāʾzēl) appears in 1 Enoch to refer to a demon. Thus, some translations render this as “to the demon Azazel” (CEV, Moffatt translation) or simply the proper noun “Azazel” (NET, NRSV).

We reject this spurious view for several reasons:

First, 1 Enoch is very late compared to Leviticus. This would be like interpreting Beowulf through the eyes of The Game of Thrones. The latter is dependent on the former—not the other way around. Harris writes, “Enoch is dependent on Leviticus 16 rather than vice versa and is no guide to the interpretation of Leviticus.”^[2] Moreover, Harrison explains, “Probably the best explanation is that the word was a rare technical term describing ‘complete removal’, i.e. of communal guilt, and that later personifications brought about myths and legends concerning Azazel in Jewish writings.”^[3]

Second, Satan and demons never receive propitiation or expiation. Rooker writes, “There is nothing in Scripture… to indicate that Satan or his demons carried out an atoning function.”^[4] Indeed, critics don’t believe that Satan appears until much later in Israel’s history.

Third, in the following chapter, Moses explicitly states that the people shouldn’t make sacrifices to demons. He writes, “They shall no longer sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat demons with which they play the harlot. This shall be a permanent statute to them throughout their generations” (Lev. 17:7 NASB).

^[1] Mark F. Rooker, Leviticus, vol. 3A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 216–217.

^[2] R. Laird Harris, “Leviticus,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1990), 590.

^[3] R. K. Harrison, Leviticus: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 3, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1980), 173.

^[4] Mark F. Rooker, Leviticus, vol. 3A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 216–217.