Five-minute study · Day 41 · Leviticus 16
Leviticus 16:8
A word worth stopping on: scapegoat עֲזָאזֵל azazel
Two goats. Identical. Standing side by side at the entrance of the Tabernacle on the Day of Atonement. Aaron casts lots over them. One will die. The other will be led into the wilderness alive, carrying the sins of Israel on its head. The goat that walks away is called the azazel. That single Hebrew word has generated more debate than almost any other in the Old Testament. No one is entirely sure what it means, and the possibilities range from a geographical feature to a fallen angel.
Word study: scapegoat
- Hebrew
- עֲזָאזֵל
- Pronounced
- azazel
- Strong's
- H5799
- Definition
- Meaning debated: 'goat of departure,' a rugged cliff or precipice, or a desert entity to whom the goat is sent.
Three main interpretations have held the field for centuries. The first, favored by the Talmud (Yoma 67b), reads azazel as a compound: az ('strong') plus azal ('to go away'). The strong goat that departs. The KJV's 'scapegoat' comes from Tyndale's translation of this reading.
The second reads azazel as a place name. The Mishnah (Yoma 6:6) describes the goat being led to a jagged cliff in the wilderness and pushed off. Tawil, in 'Azazel the Prince of the Steppe,' connects the word to an Ugaritic root meaning 'rugged ground.'
The third reading is the oldest. The Book of 1 Enoch, written in the second century BC, identifies Azazel as a fallen angelic being bound in the desert. On this reading, the ritual sends the sin-bearing goat back to the source of the corruption.
All three readings preserve the same theological picture. Two goats create a vivid binary: one dies to cover sin with blood, the other physically removes sin from the community. Atonement and removal. The sin is paid for and it is gone.
Historical context · Second millennium BC to first century AD
Two Goats and a Binary That Shaped Theology
The Day of Atonement ritual in Leviticus 16 is the only place in the Hebrew Bible where azazel appears. The ceremony required two male goats 'from the congregation of the children of Israel' (16:5). Aaron cast lots: one lot 'for the LORD' and one 'for azazel.' The LORD's goat was slaughtered. Its blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat inside the Holy of Holies. The azazel goat stayed alive. Aaron laid both hands on its head, confessed over it 'all the iniquities of the children of Israel,' and sent it into the wilderness with an appointed man.
The Mishnah (Yoma 6:4-6) adds details from Second Temple practice: a crimson thread was tied to the goat's horns, the appointed man led it through a series of booths where food and water were offered to him (though he never needed them, the Mishnah says), and the goat was taken to a cliff called Tzuk, twelve miles from Jerusalem. The man pushed the goat backward off the cliff. When the crimson thread turned white, the people in Jerusalem knew the sins had been carried away.
The two-goat structure does something a single sacrifice cannot. One animal addresses the penalty. The other addresses the presence of sin itself. Both are necessary. Forgiveness without removal leaves the contamination in place. Removal without blood leaves the penalty unpaid.
For reflection
The azazel goat carried sin into the wilderness until it was gone. Think about a sin you have confessed and been forgiven for. Do you still carry it around mentally, or have you let it walk into the desert?
Atonement covers the penalty. The azazel represents removal. Both are part of the process.
Sources: BDB Lexicon; Tawil, 'Azazel the Prince of the Steppe'; Mishnah Yoma 6:4-6; Milgrom, 'Leviticus' (AB)