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Azazel


Azazel (/əˈzzəl/), also spelled Azazael (Hebrew: עֲזָאזֵל‎, translit. ʿAzazel‎; Arabic: عزازيل‎, translit. ʿAzāzīl‎), appears in the Bible in association with the scapegoat rite. In some traditions of Judaism and Christianity, it is the name for a fallen angel. In Rabbinic Judaism, it is not a name of an entity but rather means literally "for the complete removal", i.e., designating the goat to be cast out into the wilderness as opposed to the goat sacrificed "for YHWH".

In the Bible, the term is used thrice in the book of Leviticus 16, where two male goats were to be sacrificed to YaHuWaH and one of the two was selected by lot, for Yahuwah is seen as speaking through the lots. The next words are לַעֲזָאזֵל‎, read either as "for absolute removal" or as "for Azazel". This goat was then cast out in the desert as part of Yom Kippur.

In older English versions such as the King James Version the word azazel is translated as "as a scapegoat", however in most modern English Bible translations it is represented as a name in the text:


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