In the Hebrew Bible, the name Azazel represents a desolate place where a scapegoat bearing the sins of the Jews was sent during Yom Kippur. During the late Second Temple period, Azazel came to be viewed as a fallen angel responsible for introducing humans to forbidden knowledge, as described in the Book of Enoch. His role as a fallen angel partly remains in Christian and Islamic traditions.
"And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for Azazel." Lincoln Cathedral
Mount Azazel (Jabel Munttar) in the Judean Desert
Cliffs of Mount Azazel (Jabel Munttar)
Illustration of Azazel in Dictionnaire infernal by Collin de Plancy (1863)
In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that is released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities, while the other is sacrificed. The concept first appears in the Book of Leviticus, in which a goat is designated to be cast into the desert to carry away the sins of the community.Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.
Scapegoat ceremony depicted at Lincoln Cathedral in stained glass: "[Aaron] is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat." (NIV, Leviticus 16:7–8)
The Scapegoat, by William Holman Hunt, 1854
Agnus-Dei: The Scapegoat (Agnus-Dei. Le bouc émissaire), by James Tissot