In Leviticus 16, Azazel is named in connection with the scapegoat as part of the Jewish ritual that became Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). In these passages, two goats are seleced and lots are cast to determine which goat is for Yahweh and which is for Azazel. The goat for Yahweh is sacrificed and its blood is used to purify the innermost portions of the temple. The goat for Azazel is kept alive, and after the sins of the people are confessed over it, the animal is driven into the desert to meet what is presumed will be a dismal fate.
Although these passages in Leviticus do not elaborate on who or what Azazel is, his location in the wastes of the desert draws a clear line to one of the chiefs of the Watcher Angels named in the Book of Enoch. Here, Azazel, sometimes under the variations of Asael and Azael, is bound hand and foot in the desert as punishment for his role in leading the Sons of Heaven astray. The Book of Enoch contains two parallel stories explaining the corruption of the Watchers. In the first, Shemyaza leads his people astray through the sin of lust. In the second, Azazel is blamed for the dissemination of forbidden knowledge. Specifically, he teaches the crafting of weapons of war. Both threads of the story lead to Heavenly retribution: the destruction of the Watchers' children, their imprisonment in the desert, and, ultimately, the Flood. So begins a rich history of wickedness and rebellion associated with this figure. Together with his compatriot Shemyaza, sometimes named Shemhazai, Azazel features throughout Jewish folklore. In the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, Azazel appears with the angel Azah (likely an abbreviated form of Shemyaza), where the two are sentenced to be suspended forever between Heaven and Earth for their role in bringing wickedness to the mortal plane, Azazel, however, escapes and remains on earth, unrepentant. As an evil angel bent on leading others astray, he is named in the Haggadah, in Ginsburg's Legends of the Jews, and in the Midrash of Shemhazai and Aza'el. He appears also in Islamic lore and is mentioned by name in the Qur'an in connection with the fallen angels Harut and Marut. He is sometimes also identified by Muslims as the so-called "peacock angel" of the Yezidi people, a much maligned faith group with connections to the ethnic Kurds. The Yezidi people, a much maligned faith group with connections to the ethnic Kurds. The Yezidi are often erroneously typified as Devil worshippers as the result. Azazel, under the spelling of Azazil, is sometimes given the holy name of the Islamic Satan, Ibliss, before he fell. Azazel's connection to the peacock angel likely ties back to his depiction in the Book of Enoch. In addition to teaching the crafting of weapons and armor, Azazel also shared the secrets of making cosmetics, jewelry, and dyes. The wearing of many-colored clothes is frequently decried as a sign of wickedness throughout Old Testament material, sometimes explicitly because of Azazel's own colorful predilections.
In his 1921 publication Immortality and the Unseen World, the Reverend W.O.E. Oesterley argues convincingly that Azazel is an intentionally corrupted rendition of a Hebrew name meaning "strength of God. " Henry Cornelius Agrippa gives Azazel the Hebrew version of the demon Amaimon, king of the south. This attribution may be derived from Magiae Naturalis et Innatural, a text associated with the Faust tradition and published in Passau in 1505. In this work, Azazel is assigned to the element of air. Mathers repeats Agrippa's information in his Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. See also AGRIPA, AMAIMON, SHEMYAZA, WATCHER ANGELS.
THE DICTIONARY OF DEMONS, REVISED AND EXPANDED, M. BELANGER (2021)