Jacqueline C.R. De Roo, «Was the Goat for Azazel Destined for the Wrath of God?», Vol. 81 (2000) 233-242

This article is a proposal to read the enigmatic word lz)z(, occurring in Lev 16,8.10.26, as a metathesized form of l)zz( on the basis of textual, semantic and contextual evidence, and to interpret it as a reference to ‘the powerful wrath of God’. This interpretation of the expression Azazel fits its biblical context, because the ‘goat for Azazel’ evidently had an atoning function (Lev 16,10), it was a means to atone for sin (vv. 21-22). Elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, making atonement for sin is equated with appeasing God’s wrath (Num 16,46-48; 25,6-13). Likewise, ‘the goat for Azazel’, carrying the sins of the people, is for ‘the powerful wrath of God’, to placate his anger. The proposed interpretation of the ‘goat for Azazel’ ritual may also have been in the mind of some post-biblical interpreters, both Jewish and Christian.

plausible rendering for the word zz( is ‘furious power’ or ‘powerful wrath’²⁰. Therefore, given lz)z( is a metathesized form of l)zz(, a likely rendering for the expression Azazel is ‘the powerful wrath of God’. Yet it needs to be investigated whether this interpretation of Azazel fits within its context.

The Biblical Context of the Expression ‘Azazel’: The Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16

        The ‘goat for Azazel’ ritual is found in a passage which has as its main theme ‘The Day of Atonement’ (notice the recurrence of the root rpk vv. 6, 10, 11, 16, 17-18, 20, 24, 27, 30, 32-34; cf. Myrpkh  Mwy in Lev 23,27.28). Moreover, it is significant that the goat for Azazel plays a direct role in atonement:

        The goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before YHWH to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel (v. 10).

        Aaron is supposed to lay his hands on the head of the goat for Azazel while confessing the sins of the people, putting the sins on the goat’s head before it is driven into the wilderness (vv. 21-22). So the goat for Azazel is an important element in atoning for sin.

        The Hebrew word for ‘to make atonement’ in Lev 16,10 is rpk. Its primary meaning is uncertain²¹. Yet a case can be made that in atonement for sin God’s anger is placated, in other words, he is propitiated or appeased. Elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible making atonement is equated with turning away the wrath of God. In Numbers 16, Moses tells Aaron to make atonement for the sinful Israelites, ‘because wrath has gone out from YHWH’ in the form of a plague (v. 46). Aaron’s act of atonement stops the plague, the expression of God’s anger (vv. 47-48)²². Numbers 25, describing Phinehas’s killing of the Israelite and the Midianite woman, also clearly speaks of atonement as a means to appease God’s wrath. The mixed couple killed by Phinehas clearly symbolizes evil. In v. 11 God says about Phinehas: ‘He has turned back my wrath from the Israelites by manifesting such zeal among them on my behalf that in my jealousy I did not consume the Israelites’. In v. 13 the same thought is expressed in slightly different terms: ‘He [Phinehas] was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites’. Phinehas’s zealous act is described as both turning away God’s wrath and atoning for the Israelites, showing that atonement is a way to appease God²³.