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A GOAT FOR AZAZEL byJack L. Weinbender IIIA paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for OT 5150 Old Testament IntroductionDr. Christopher A. RollstonEmmanuel School of ReligionJohnson City, TN November 17, 2009
 
A GOAT FOR AZAZELTranslators and commentators have had trouble with the Hebrew phrase
לזאזעל
inLev 16:8 since it was first penned by the Priestly writer(s) many centuries ago. The word has been translated variously as “for the precipice,” “for a goat of departure,” “for Azazel,” andfamously in the KJV, “for a scapegoat.” Each translation brings with it an assumption of purposeto the so called “scapegoat” ritual
1
with respect to both the Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) contextand to the cult of YHWH as described in the Hebrew Bible. As part of the Day of Atonementrituals, the scapegoat plays a central role in the removal of sin from the Israelite camp.Traditionally, scholars have approached the term
לזאזע
in one of three ways: a) describing thegoat’s function in the removal of sin or impurity (as in the LXX and Vulgate), b) the name of thecliff or precipice from which the goat is cast, and most commonly, c) the name of a demondwelling in the desert outside the camp.In Lev 16:8, the LXX translates
לזאזע
as
τῷ ἀποπο
µ
παίῳ
, “the one carrying away theevil” (also in 16:10; in both gen. and acc. cases), but in v. 26 as
τὸν χί
µ
αρον τὸνδιεσταλ
µ
ένον εἰς ἄφεσιν
, “the goat set apart for dismissal.”
2
In order for this translation to make
1. For the purposes of this paper, the second goat of the ritual will be referred to as the “scapegoat,”though, as described below, this most likely is not an accurate translation of 
לזאזע
.2. A. Pinker, “A goat to go to Azazel,”
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures
7 (2007): 3; J. W. Wevers,
Notes onthe Greek Text of Leviticus
, Septuagint and cognate studies series no. 44 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997) 243–46; J.Milgrom,
Leviticus 1-16: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary
, (AB 3; New York: Doubleday,1991): 1020.
1.
 
sense etymologically, the LXX translator seems to have seen the Hebrew word as a compound of of two parts:
זע
“goat” and the Aramaic
לזא
“to depart.”
3
The most obvious shortcoming to thisview shows itself in the grammatical context of v. 8. Literally, the Hebrew reads, “And Aaronwill place lots on the two he-goats—one lot for YHWH and one lot for Azazel.” The LXXrenders the passage in a nearly word-for-word equivalent to the MT, changing only the word
לזאזע
. As Weavers notes, the two different translations of 
לזאזע
in vv. 8 and 10 vis-à-vis v. 26show that the LXX translator saw the term as descriptive of the goats
function
.
4
This renderingstrains the obvious parallelism between the two uses of the Hebrew preposition
ְלּ
in the MT v. 8and the prepositional dative phrase in the LXX. Where the first prepositional phrase “to/for YHWH” clearly denotes destination or ownership, translating
לזאזעל
as “for a scapegoat” shiftsthe lot’s function as a marker of destination to one of function. If 
לזאזעל
were translated “for ascapegoat,” we might expect the other goat to be designated “for a burnt offering,” or somethingsimilar. Furthermore, post-biblical Jewish literature depicts Azazel as a desert demon equatedwith Satan or a fallen angel (cf.
3 Enoch
4:6;
Apocalypse of Abraham
;
1 Enoch
10:4-5 “Azael” ).Very little support exists for 
לזאזע
meaning “the goat that departs” outside of the LXX, thougheven there the context betrays the clear syntactical parallelism between YHWH and Azazel.A more convincing argument set forth by Driver—that
לזאזע
was the name of a rockyoutcropping or precipice—fits the grammatical context of the phrase more appropriately. Driver 
3. Milgrom,
Leviticus 1-16 
, 1020; G. R. Driver, “Three technical terms in the Pentateuch,”
Journal of Semitic Studies
1, no. 2 (April 1956): 98. Milgrom comments that though
לזא
is an Aramaic term, it is found in theHebrew Bible (Cf. Prov. 20:14 and Job 14:11).4. Wevers,
 Notes on the Greek Text of Leviticus
, 245; also Pinker, “A goat to go to Azazel,” 3.
2.
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