Of Goats, Azazel, and Things That Annoy Me!

This post I am going to address something that has bothered me for quite some time. I mean really bothers me. Lots!! It is about “Azazel.” Who or what is “Azazel”, you ask? Azazel is a Hebrew word that is used for “scapegoat.” However, looking this up online may lead to different results. You see, Azazel is also the name of a demon in the apocryphal Book of Enoch (apocryphal means it is not considered to be inspired by God, and is thus not included in the Bible).

In the Book of Enoch, Azazel was the leader of the angels that voluntarily fell from Heaven to have intercourse with women (Genesis 6) and created the giants of the Old Testament, also referred to as Nephilim, Rephaim, Giborrim, and other terms. Now I have read the Book of Enoch, and my concern is not whether the events did or did not happen; my concern is with people that cannot seem to make the distinction between goats and demons.

On Wikipedia, when looking up the demon Azazel, we read “The word's first appearance is in Leviticus 16, where a goat is designated "for Azazel" and outcast in the desert as part of Yom Kippur.” “For Azazel.” As though it was sacrificed to a demon. Ridiculous. This sentiment is carried throughout the Internet and beyond (I was just on IMDB and someone referenced similar misinformation). Here’s what the Bible actually says:

Leviticus 16:8-10

“And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD's lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.”

The lot is not designating a goat to be sacrificed to the demon Azazel. It is designating it to be an “azazel,” or “goat of departure” (Young’s Literal Translation). A scapegoat. The goat was to carry the people’s sins of into the wilderness, and was symbolic of Jesus having the iniquity of mankind laid upon Him; that’s one reason this misinformation ticks me off, and the other is just because misinformation ticks me off in general.

I don’t really have much more to say, but I saw something that renewed this feeling of annoyingyness and just had to say something. So…God bless!

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