Azazel: Scapegoat of Leviticus 16 or Fallen Watcher?

A name from the Day of Atonement ritual that became the Watcher who taught humanity weapons, metalwork and makeup.

Azazel first appears in the Day of Atonement ritual of Leviticus 16, where one goat is sent into the wilderness "for Azazel." In 1 Enoch he becomes a leader of the fallen Watchers who taught weapons, metalwork and cosmetics.

Azazel first appears in Leviticus 16, in the Day of Atonement ritual. The high priest casts lots over two goats, "one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat." The Hebrew for "scapegoat" is la-'aza'zel, "for Azazel." The sins of the people are confessed over this goat and it is sent away into the wilderness. The text never says who or what Azazel is, and ancient readers treated it variously as a place, a description of the goat, or a being who lived in the desert.

In 1 Enoch, Azazel is one of the leaders of the fallen Watchers and the great teacher of forbidden crafts. "Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them," along with bracelets, ornaments, antimony for the eyelids, precious stones and dyes. The book is blunt about his role: "to him ascribe all sin."

His punishment is precise. God tells Raphael to "bind Azazel hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert, which is in Dudael," and to cover him with jagged rocks until the day of judgment. The desert setting links him back to the scapegoat. Later the Apocalypse of Abraham shows Azazel as an unclean bird who tries to turn Abraham back from his journey to heaven. The name's meaning is debated. Suggestions include "God strengthens," a word for "complete removal," or a rugged cliff where the goat was driven. The Mishnah describes the goat being pushed backward off a cliff outside Jerusalem.