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Leviticus 16:8
Some consider azazel to be the name of a place, specifically a location east of Jerusalem. This interpretation comes from rabbinic Judaism, which developed in the centuries after the Jews returned from Babylon. In this view, azazel describes a particularly hard and difficult land to which the second goat was taken with all the nation's sins. In later practice—many centuries after God gave these instructions—the second goat was brought to a cliff and pushed over the cliff backward. Of course, the Jews have added to God's Word here because those actions are not part of His instructions. This interpretation focuses on a specific, accursed location where the goat bears the sins. In modern Hebrew, the phrase lekh la'aza'zel means “Go to azazel.” It is the Hebrew equivalent of saying, “Go to hell.” In this starting point, azazel represents a bad place. A basic problem with this idea is that Leviticus 16 was given while Israel was in the wilderness, and their camp location always changed. God did not record that Israel always camped in the same place for the Day of Atonement nor stopped each year within walking distance of a specific cliff. This starting point derives a meaning based on a practice developed a thousand years after Leviticus was written and then applies it retroactively. In addition, this interpretation focuses on a specific location, yet the instructions in the chapter focus on how God removes the nation's sins, not where the sins end up.
David C. Grabbe
Azazel: Beginnings
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