God told Israel’s high priest to send a goat to a demon. Once every year.
At least, that’s how it can look when we first read Leviticus 16. The chapter speaks of two goats. One is ‘for the LORD’. Then the second goat, carrying the sins of the whole nation, is sent away into the desert—‘to Azazel’.
So who is this mystery figure? The name appears in only one chapter of the Bible, and the Bible never explains it. Some say Azazel is a demon. Some say it’s a place in the desert. Many Bibles simply print the word ‘scapegoat’. A few even claim the goat was a gift for Satan.
Did God really ask His people to send a present to the devil? No. But the true answer is far more exciting than the rumour. In this post, we shall weigh up the main views and show why Azazel is most likely an evil spirit of the wilderness. And why this strange ritual is one of the clearest pictures of Jesus in the Old Testament.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Azazel is most likely the name of an evil spiritual power linked with the desert. But the goat wasn’t Azazel, and it wasn’t a gift to Azazel. The goat belonged to God. It carried Israel’s sins away from God’s people, back to the place where evil belongs. Jesus fulfils this picture: He carried our sins away for good.
KEY WORDS
- Atonement: God’s way of dealing with sin, so that guilty people can be at peace with him.
- Day of Atonement: Israel’s holiest day of the year, also called Yom Kippur. Leviticus 16 describes it.
- High priest: Israel’s chief priest. Only he could enter the inner room of the tabernacle (God’s tent), and only on this day.
- Sin offering: an animal given to God to deal with sin.
- Casting lots: a little like drawing straws. Israel believed God decided the result (Proverbs 16:33).
- Scapegoat: a word made up in 1530 for the goat that was sent away. Today it means someone who takes the blame for others.
What Leviticus 16 Actually Says
Leviticus 16 comes after a tragedy. Two of Aaron’s sons came near to God carelessly, and they died (Leviticus 10:1–2). So God now explains how a sinful people can live safely with a holy God in their midst.
His answer is the Day of Atonement. On this one day each year, the high priest dealt with the sins of the whole nation.
The Day of Atonement, step by step
- Step 1—Washing: Aaron washes and puts on plain linen clothes (v. 4).
- Step 2—For himself: He offers a bull for his own sins and his family’s sins (v. 6).
- Step 3—Choosing the goats: He takes two male goats from the people and casts lots over them (vv. 7–8).
- Step 4—The first goat dies: The goat ‘for the LORD’ is killed. Its blood is sprinkled in the Most Holy Place (v. 15).
- Step 5—The second goat goes: Aaron confesses Israel’s sins over the live goat. A man leads it into the wilderness (vv. 21–22).
- Step 6—Clean again: The man who led the goat away must wash before he returns to the camp (v. 26).
Here’s the key verse:
And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for Azazel.
Leviticus 16:8
And here’s what happens to the second goat:
…the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the LORD to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.
Leviticus 16:10
Notice 2 things. The goat stands ‘before the LORD’. And it is sent ‘to Azazel’. Keep both in mind—they’re keys to solving the puzzle.
4 Ways to Read ‘Azazel’
Older English Bibles, like the King James Version, print ‘scapegoat’. The ESV keeps the Hebrew word ‘Azazel’ and adds a note saying its meaning is uncertain. Over the centuries, Bible teachers have offered four main answers.
Table 1: The 4 main views on who or what Azazel is, and how well each fits the words of Leviticus 16
| VIEW | WHAT ‘AZAZEL’ MEANS | WHO HAS HELD IT | MAIN WEAKNESS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The goat itself (‘scapegoat’) | ‘The goat that goes away’ | William Tyndale; the King James Version; the Geneva Bible notes | Verse 10 would then say the goat is sent ‘to the goat’. That makes no sense. |
| 2. A place | A rough, rocky spot in the desert | John Calvin; many Jewish teachers | The Bible never names such a place. Israel moved around for 40 years, yet the lot was cast every year. |
| 3. ‘Total removal’ | An idea: sin taken away completely | Some 19th-century scholars | It breaks the balance of verse 8. ‘For the LORD’ names a person, not an idea. |
| 4. A personal evil being | The name of a powerful evil spirit of the desert | Carl Friedrich Keil; Gordon Wenham; Michael Heiser; many ancient Jewish writers | It can be misread as a gift to a demon. The text itself rules this out (see below). |
It’s worth pausing on John Calvin. The great Geneva pastor believed Azazel was a place. He said the goat was driven far away so God’s curse wouldn’t rest on the people. On that main point, every view in this post agrees with him. The question isn’t whether sin was sent away, but where.
Making the Case: Who Is Azazel?
So which view is right? We can’t be completely certain about the meaning of one rare word. But the text gives us strong clues. Put together, they point clearly to View 4.
- Clue 1—The goat isn’t Azazel. Verse 10 says the goat is sent ‘to Azazel’. Verse 26 speaks of the man ‘who lets the goat go to Azazel’. You cannot send a goat to itself. So ‘scapegoat’ is a good description of the animal, but a poor translation of the name.
- Clue 2—The two lots are a matched pair. One lot is ‘for the LORD’. The other is ‘for Azazel’. In Hebrew, the same little word for ‘for’ stands before both names. If the first name is a person—God himself—the second most naturally names a person too. The 19th-century Old Testament scholar Carl Friedrich Keil (writing with Franz Delitzsch) put it strongly. The wording, he said, requires ‘that Azazel should be regarded as a personal being, in opposition to Jehovah.’
- Clue 3—The desert is enemy ground. In the Bible, the wilderness is often a home of evil spirits. Just one chapter later, God forbids Israel to sacrifice ‘to goat demons’ (Leviticus 17:7). Isaiah uses the same Hebrew word for the ‘wild goats’ that haunt ruined cities (Isaiah 13:21; 34:14). Jesus said unclean spirits wander through ‘waterless places’ (Matthew 12:43). And where did Jesus meet the devil? He ‘was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil’ (Matthew 4:1).
- Clue 4—The earliest Jewish readers saw a person. Long before Jesus, Jewish writers treated Azazel as a fallen angel. Their stories aren’t Scripture, but they show how people close to the original language understood the word.
So Azazel is best understood as a powerful evil spirit of the wilderness. Keil believed it was a name for the devil himself, since only the leader of evil could stand opposite the LORD like this. Gordon Wenham, a leading modern writer on Leviticus, also takes Azazel to be a demon.
Why the Goat Was Never a Gift to the Devil
Now we must face the big worry. If Azazel is an evil spirit, did Israel send him an offering? No. Leviticus itself closes every door to that idea.
- Both goats belong to God. Verse 5 says the people bring ‘two male goats for a sin offering’. That is one offering made of two goats. Nothing is given to Azazel.
- God chooses, not Azazel. The lot decides which goat goes where, and ‘its every decision is from the LORD’ (Proverbs 16:33). The 18th-century Baptist pastor John Gill saw in this lot a picture of Christ’s death happening by God’s set plan.
- The goat stands before the LORD. Before it leaves, the live goat is ‘presented alive before the LORD’ (v. 10).
- Demon worship is banned in the very next chapter. Leviticus 17:7 says Israel must ‘no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons’. God would not command in chapter 16 what he forbids in chapter 17.
- The goat isn’t killed. A sacrifice dies. This goat is simply let go. The Geneva Bible notes of 1560 make this very point: the goat ‘was not offered but sent into the desert’.
EVICTION, NOT PAYMENT
When you clean your house, you don’t give your rubbish to the rubbish dump as a present. You simply take it out of the house.
In the same way, Israel’s sins were not a gift for Azazel. They were removed from God’s house and sent back to where evil belongs. The message was clear: this sin no longer lives with God’s people.
What About the Book of Enoch?
Search online for Azazel and you will soon meet the Book of Enoch. This is an ancient Jewish book, mostly written in the last few centuries before Jesus. It is not part of the Bible.
- What Enoch says: Azazel is a leader of rebel angels who came down to earth. He teaches people to make swords, shields and jewellery (1 Enoch 8:1).
- His punishment: God tells the angel Raphael to bind Azazel and throw him into a dark pit in the desert until judgement day (1 Enoch 10:4–6).
- What we should make of it: Enoch shows how some ancient Jews read Leviticus 16. But it is a later human story, not God’s Word.
Peter and Jude do speak of fallen angels kept in darkness (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6). Jude even quotes a line from Enoch (Jude 14–15). But quoting a book does not make it Scripture. Paul quoted Greek poets too (Acts 17:28).
Is the Scapegoat Satan?
Some groups, especially Seventh-day Adventists, teach that the live goat itself pictures Satan. Adventist writers are careful to say Satan saves no one. They mean that he finally bears the blame for the sins he caused. Even so, the text of Leviticus 16 points the other way.
- The goat is holy. God’s lot chooses it, and it is presented before the LORD. Nothing in the chapter pictures it as wicked.
- The goat is used ‘to make atonement’. Verse 10 says so plainly. Satan has no part in making atonement for anyone.
- The goat carries sins it did not commit. That is the work of a substitute, not a criminal. Isaiah says of the coming Saviour, ‘the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all’ (Isaiah 53:6).
So the line is clear. The goat pictures Christ, the sin-bearer. Azazel is, at most, the destination.
2 Goats, 1 Saviour
Why 2 goats? Because 1 animal could not show everything God wanted to show. 1 goat had to die. The other had to live and carry sin away. Together they make one picture of what Jesus would do.
Table 2: How the 2 goats of the Day of Atonement point to Jesus
| THE GOAT | WHAT HAPPENED TO IT | WHAT IT TEACHES | HOW JESUS FULFILS IT |
|---|---|---|---|
| The goat ‘for the LORD’ | Killed; its blood was brought before God in the Most Holy Place (vv. 9, 15) | Sin deserves death. God’s justice must be satisfied. | Jesus died in our place and entered heaven ‘by means of his own blood’ (Hebrews 9:12). |
| The goat ‘for Azazel’ | Israel’s sins were confessed over it; it was led alive out of the camp (vv. 21–22) | Forgiven sin is taken away, never to return. | Jesus ‘bore the sin of many’ (Isaiah 53:12) and ‘suffered outside the gate’ (Hebrews 13:12). |
For the whole Day of Atonement fulfilled in Christ, see The Cross and Yom Kippur.
Puritan Bible scholar Matthew Poole wrote simply: ‘Both this and the other goat typified Christ.’ (To ‘typify’ means to be a picture or pattern of something greater.) John Calvin agreed. He saw one goat as a sacrifice and the other as an outcast driven away. He then concluded: ‘The fulfilment of both figures, however, was manifested in Christ.’
Think about Jesus’ last day. The priests and rulers declared him guilty. Appointed men led him out of the city, just as the goat was led out ‘by the hand of a man who is in readiness’ (v. 21). He died outside the camp, carrying sins that were not his own (2 Corinthians 5:21). Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the London preacher, pictured Jesus here as the great Scapegoat, led away by the officers of justice.
And what about Azazel?
If Azazel stands for the evil one, the goat carried Israel’s sins back into enemy territory. It was as if God said, ‘Take your work back. It has no place among my people.’
Jesus did even more than this. He defeated the enemy. The devil is ‘the accuser’ (Revelation 12:10), and our sin is the only thing he can accuse us with. When Jesus carried our sin away, the accuser was left with nothing to say. God ‘disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him’ (Colossians 2:15). Through his death, Jesus destroyed ‘the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil’ (Hebrews 2:14).
So the Day of Atonement shows 2 great gifts at once:
- Your guilt is paid for. The first goat died. Jesus died.
- Your guilt is gone. The second goat walked away and never came back. ‘As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us’ (Psalm 103:12).
What This Means for You
Leviticus 16 is not just a strange old ritual. It is a picture God painted for you. Every year, Israel watched a goat disappear into the desert and knew their sins were gone. But the next year, they had to do it all again (Hebrews 10:1–4).
Jesus did it once, for ever (Hebrews 9:28). So when the enemy reminds you of your past, point him to the empty wilderness. Your sins have been carried away, and they are not coming back. As Spurgeon told his congregation, ‘the scapegoat is gone, our sins are gone with it.’
REMEMBER
- Azazel: most likely an evil spirit of the desert, standing opposite the LORD.
- The goat: belonged to God, not to Azazel. It was never a gift to the devil.
- The message: forgiven sin is sent away for ever.
- The fulfilment: Jesus, who died for us and carried our sins away.
Tough Questions, Honest Answers
Where does the English word ‘scapegoat’ come from?
William Tyndale made up the word in 1530 when he translated Leviticus into English. He read the Hebrew ‘Azazel’ as ‘the goat that escapes’, so he wrote ‘scapegoat’. The King James Version kept his word in 1611. Over time, it moved into everyday English for anyone who takes the blame for others. Most scholars now think Tyndale’s reading of the Hebrew was not quite right. But his word still points to a true idea: Jesus took the blame that belonged to us.
What happened to the goat after it was released?
Leviticus only says the goat was let go in the wilderness (Leviticus 16:22). Later Jewish practice, recorded in the Mishnah (Jewish teachings written down around AD 200), says the goat was pushed backwards off a cliff so it could never return. Leviticus never commands this. It seems people feared the goat might wander back to the city and bring their sins with it. The gospel removes that fear. When Jesus takes our sins away, they do not come back.
Did a red thread really stop turning white before AD 70?
Jewish tradition says a red thread was tied in the temple on the Day of Atonement, and it turned white when God forgave Israel—an echo of Isaiah 1:18. The Babylonian Talmud (Yoma 39b) adds a surprising detail. It says that for the last 40 years before the temple was destroyed in AD 70, the thread no longer turned white. That takes us back to around AD 30, close to the time when Jesus died. We cannot prove the story, and we should not build our faith on it. But it is striking that Jewish writers themselves remembered God’s sign stopping just when the true Sacrifice was offered.
Is Azazel mentioned in Islam?
The name Azazel doesn’t appear in the Qur’an. But later Islamic traditions say ‘Azazil’ was the original name of Iblis, the devil, before he refused to bow to Adam and fell. This shows how widely the idea of Azazel as a fallen spirit spread in the ancient world. The Bible’s message is different in one big way. Islam has no sin-bearer who carries guilt away. In the Bible, God himself provides the One who does.
Is the Azazel in TV shows like Supernatural the same as the Bible’s Azazel?
No. Shows like Supernatural and comics like X-Men borrow the name for dramatic villains. Their stories come from writers’ imaginations, mixed with bits of Enoch and occult legend. The Bible says very little about Azazel himself. Its focus is not on the demon but on the God who removes sin. Christians can enjoy stories wisely, but we should get our view of the spiritual world from Scripture, not from the screen.
Do Jewish people still send a goat away on Yom Kippur?
No. When the temple was destroyed in AD 70, the sacrifices of Leviticus 16 stopped. Today, Jewish worshippers fast, pray and confess their sins on Yom Kippur. Many synagogues read aloud a description of the old temple service. Some Jews also practise a custom called kapparot, in which a chicken or money is swung over the head before the holiday. For Christians, the loss of the temple is not a gap to be filled, because Jesus is the final sacrifice (Hebrews 10:12).
Should Christians read the Book of Enoch?
Christians are free to read it, as they might read any ancient book. It can help us understand the world of Jesus’ time and the ideas behind verses like Jude 14–15. But it is not inspired by God, and it must never be treated as equal to the Bible. Parts of it are strange and unreliable. The early church as a whole did not accept it as Scripture, and almost no church does today. If you read it, keep your Bible open and your discernment switched on.
Related Reads
- The Cross and Yom Kippur: How Jesus Fulfils the Day of Atonement
- Jesus in Leviticus: Our Priest, Sacrifice and Mercy Seat
- Shouldn’t the Book of Enoch Be In the Bible? Why Isn’t It?
- Seventh Day Adventism: How Does It Differ From Biblical Doctrine?
- Mount Hermon in the Bible: Dew, Watchers and the Gates of Hell
- Why Can’t There Be Forgiveness Without the “Shedding of Blood”?
- Penal Substitutionary Atonement: The Heart of the Gospel Explained
- Are Idols Demonic? What the Bible Teaches
- Does the New Testament Distort the Jewish Atonement?
