Azazel is an enigmatic name from the Hebrew scriptures and Apocrypha, where the name is used interchangeably with Rameel and Gadriel.

The first appearance of the name "Azazel" is in Leviticus 16:8, when God orders the high priest Aaron to "place lots upon the 2 goats, one marked for the Lord and the other marked for Azazel" on the Jewish Day of Atonement. The goat designated by lot for the Lord is to be used as a sin offering, while the goat designated for Azazel "shall be left standing alive before the Lord, to make expiation with it and to send it off to the wilderness to Azazel" (Lev. 16:10). Aaron was to "lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and transgressions of the Israelites, whatever their sins, putting them on the head of the goat; and it shall be sent off to the wilderness by someone designated for the task. Thus the goat shall carry on it all their iniquities to an inaccessible region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness" (Lev. 16:21-22). Leviticus also says that "He who set the goat for Azazel free shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; after that he may reenter the camp" (16:26).


The Talmud (Yoma 67b) identifies Azazel as the name of a cliff over which the goat was driven in the atonement ritual for Yom Kippur. This version was cited by the Biblical commentator Rashi, who took "azazel" to mean "rough ground" or "cliff," and this meaning was accepted by many Jewish commentators who wished to avoid contamination of the Torah by traces of polytheism or belief in demons. Thus Ibn Ezra took "Azazel" to refer to "a mountain near Sinai," while G.R. Disker took the "rough ground" to be Dudael, a rocky place where the fallen angel Azazel is imprisoned" (I Enoch 10:4-6). It has also been identified with Hudedun, "a rocky terrace in the wilderness, ten miles from Jerusalem." (The Torah, A Modern Commentary, p 1735, n. 4)

Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal (1863) describes Azazel as the guardian of goats. On the 10th day of Tishri, on the feast of the Expiation, it was Jewish custom to draw lots for two goats: one for the Lord and the other for Azazel. The goat for the Lord was then sacrificed and its blood served as atonement. With the goat for Azazel, the high priest would place both of his hands on the goat's head and confess both his sins and the sins of the people. The goat ("scapegoate") was then led into the desert and set free. Azazel then returned the goat. Milton described Azazel as the first gate-teacher of the infernal armies. Azazel is also the name of the demon that serves Mark the heretic.


Azazel is invoked or referenced in a number of works in different media, including books, music, comic books, games, movies, and television. A complete list is beyond the scope of this article. Classically, Cornelius Agrippa lists 4 fallen angels as the opposites of the 4 holy rulers of the elements; among them is Azael, who is chained in a desert where he will remain until the day of judgment. Perhaps the most notable descriptions, though, are the references made to him by the Romantic poets: Azazel (described as "a cherub tall") is a fallen angel and Lucifer's standard bearer in John Milton's Paradise Lost, and is one of the angels in Lord Byron's drama Heaven and Earth. Among 20th century authors the name Azazel has been used for characters by authors as diverse as Mikhail Bulgakov, Isaac Asimov, Salman Rushdie and Boris Akunin. In visual media, Azazel appears as a body-hopping demon spirit in the film Fallen, and is the main character in the TV series HEX.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org