Yom Kippur, the Az’azel and Enoch the Prophet
By
James Scott Trimm
The Yom Kippur Temple ritual is among the most beautifully prophetic in its imagery of all of the Temple ceremonies. In this ceremony the High Priest casts lots upon two goats, one which is appointed “for YHWH” and the other “for Az’azel”. As we read in the Torah:
7 And he shall take the two goats, and set them before YHWH at the door of the tent of meeting.
8 And Aharon shall cast lots upon the two goats: one lot for YHWH, and the other lot for az’azel.
9 And Aharon shall present the goat upon which the lot fell for YHWH, and offer him for a sin-offering.
10 But the goat on which the lot fell for az’azel, shall be set alive before YHWH, to make atonement over him, to send him away for az’azel into the wilderness.
(Lev. 16:7-10 HRV)
The first of these goats represents the first coming of Messiah and is a sin-offering (representing the death of the Messiah). Then the High Priest (representing the resurrected Messiah) enters the Holy of Holies (representing the Heavenly Holy of Holies) and sprinkles the blood even times on the alter (representing the opening of the seven seals). Then the High Priest returns from the Holy of Holies (representing the return of the Messiah) and then we read:
21 And Aharon shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Yisra’el, and all their transgressions; even all their sins. And he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of an appointed man, into the wilderness.
22 And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land which is cut off: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.
(Lev. 16:21-22 HRV)
The text however seems to assume that the reader already knows who or what an “azazel” is.
So who or what is an “azazel” and what is the prophetic meaning of this goat?
Azazel in the Book of Enoch
In the Book of Enoch Azazel is one of two leaders of the fallen angels who came down, took human form, and copulated with human women:
1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters.
2 And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.’
(1Enoch 6:1-2 See Gen. 6:1-2; 2Pt. 2:2-10 and Jude 1:6-8)
Although we are initially told that Shemikhazah was their leader (1En. 6:3), we are also given a list of twenty of their leaders of tens (1Enoch 6:7-8) and halfway through that list we find an “Asa’el”. It appears that this Asa’el (elsewhere spelled Azazel) and Shemikhazah were each leaders over 100, as Asa’el becomes prominently featured beginning in Chapter 8:
1 And Asa’el taught men to make swords of iron, and knives, and shields, and breastplates of brass, and made known to them the metals that are excavated from the earth and the art of working gold and concerning silver, and bracelets, and ornaments, and concerning antimony, and eye shadow, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures.
2 And there arose much godlessness, and being wicked, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways.
(1Enoch 8:1-2)
The Zohar mentions this fall as follows:
R. Isaac said: “Uzza and Azael fell from the abode of their sanctity
above, they saw the daughters of mankind and sinned with them and
begat children. These were the Nefilim, of whom it is said, THE
NEFILIM WERE IN THE EARTH (Gen. 6:4).”
(Zohar 1:37a)
“Of the Nefilim it is said: “and the sons of God saw the daughters
of men that they were fair” (Gen. 6:1f). These form a second
category of the Nefilim, already mentioned above, in this way:
When God thought of making man, He said: “Let us make man
in our image, etc.” i.e. He intended to make him head over the
celestial beings, who were to be his deputies, like Joseph over
the governors of Egypt (Gen. 41:41). The angels thereupon
began to malign him and say, “What is man that You should
remember him, seeing that he will assuredly sin before You.”
Said God to them, “If you were on earth like him, you would
sin worse.” And so it was. For “when the sons of God saw the
daughters of man”, they fell in love with them, and God cast
them down from heaven. These were Uzza and Azael; from them
the “mixed multitude” derive their souls, and therefore they also
are called nefilim, because they fell into fornication with fair
women.”
(Zohar 1:25b)
The Angels in heaven see these sins, petition YHWH:
4 And Rafa’el and Mikha’el said to the Master of the ages: ‘Our Great Master, [you] are Master of the ages , Master of masters, Elohi of Elohim, King of kings, and Elohim of the ages, the throne of Your glory stands unto all the generations of the ages, and Your name set-apart and glorious and blessed unto all the ages!
5 You have made all things, and you have power over all things: and all things are naked and open in Your sight, and You see all things, and nothing can hide itself from You.
6 You see what Azazel has done, who has taught all unrighteousness on earth and revealed the eternal secrets, which were (preserved) in heaven, which men were practicing.
7 And Shemikhazah, to whom You have given authority to be king over his associates.
8 And they have gone to the daughters of men upon the earth, and have slept with the women, and have defiled themselves, and revealed to them all kinds of sins.
9 And the women have borne giants, and the whole earth has thereby been filled with blood and unrighteousness.
10 And now, behold, the souls of those who have died are crying and making their suit to the gates of heaven, and their lamentations have ascended: and cannot cease because of the Torah-less deeds which are wrought on the earth.
11 And You know all things before they come to pass, and You see these things and You do suffer them, and You do not say to us what we are to do to them in regard to these.’
(1Enoch 9:4-11)
YHWH then instructs Raphael saying:
4 And again YHWH said to Rafa’el: ‘Bind Azaz’el hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert, which is in Dudael, and cast him therein.
5 And place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there for ever, and cover his face that he may not see light.
6 And on the day of the great judgment he shall be cast into the fire.
7 And heal the earth, which the angels have corrupted, and proclaim the healing of the earth, that they may heal the plague, and that all the children of men may not perish through all the secret things that the Watchers have disclosed and have taught their sons.
8 And the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sins.’
(1Enoch 10:4-8)
This binding up of Azazel is also mentioned in the Zohar:
…after God cast Uzza and Azael down from their holy
place, they went astray after the women folk and seduced
the world also. It may seem strange that being angels they
were able to abide upon the earth. The truth is, however,
that when they were cast down the celestial light which
used to sustain them left them and they were changed to
another grade through the influence of the air of this world.
Similarly the manna which came down for the Israelites in
the wilderness originated in the celestial dew from the most
recondite spot, and at first its light would radiate to all worlds
and the “field of apples”, and the heavenly angels drew
sustenance from it, but when it approached the earth it
became materialized through the influence of the air of
this world and lost its brightness, becoming only like
“coriander seed”. Now when God saw that these fallen
angels were seducing the world, He bound them in chains of
iron to a mountain of darkness. Uzza He bound at the bottom
of the mountain and covered his face with darkness because
he struggled and resisted, but Azael, who did not resist, He
set by the side of a mountain where a little light penetrated.
Men who know where they are located seek them out,
and they teach them enchantments and sorceries and
divinations. These mountains of darkness are called the
“mountains of the East”, and therefore Balaam said:
“From Aram has Balak brought me, from the mountains
of the East”. Because they both learnt their sorceries there.
Now Uzza and Azael used to tell those men who came to
them some of the notable things which they knew in former
times when they were on high, and to speak about the holy
world in which they used to be.
(Zohar 3:208a)
In which place and from whom did Balaam derive all his
Magical practices and knowledge? Rabbi Isaac replied:
“He learned it first from his father, but it was in the
“mountains of the East”, which are in an eastern country,
that he obtained a mastery of all the arts of magic and
divination. For those mountains are the abode of the
[fallen] angels Uzza and Azael whom the Holy One cast
down from heaven, and who were chained there in fetters.
It is they who impart to the sons of men a knowledge of
magic.
(Zohar 1:126a)
The Azazel in the Yom Kippur ceremony represents Azazel. The High Priest places all of the sins of Israel upon him:
21 And Aharon shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Yisra’el, and all their transgressions; even all their sins. And he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of an appointed man, into the wilderness.
(Lev. 16:21 HRV)
Just as we read in the Book of Enoch:
8 And the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sins.’
(1Enoch 10:8)
And the Azazel in the Yom Kuppur ceremony is “sent away into the wilderness” just as Azazael ‘s fate:
4 And again YHWH said to Rafa’el: ‘Bind Azaz’el hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert, which is in Dudael, and cast him therein.
5 And place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there for ever, and cover his face that he may not see light.
(1Enoch 10:4-5)
The Fate of HaSatan
The Azazel in the Yom Kippur Ceremony points backward to the fate of Azazel in the Book of Enoch, but also forward to the fate of HaSatan at the return of the Messiah.
When the High Priest exits the Holy of Holies, he represents the return of the Messiah, who then takes all of the sins and ascribes them to the Azazel (representing HaSatan) before casting him into the pit:
1 And I saw another angel that descended from heaven, who had the key of the abyss, and a great chain in his hand.
2 And he seized the dragon, the old serpent, who is the Akel Kartza and HaSatan, and bound him one thousand years.
3 And he cast him into the abyss, and closed and sealed the top over him, so that he would not seduce all the nations any more. After these [things], he must release him [for] a short time.
(Rev. 20:1-3 HRV)
The shofar has been blown and the Day of Atonement is fast approaching. Each year at this time it is said that the gates of heaven open and the Merkavah (divine throne-chariot) is prepared for YHWH to come and judge the earth. It is for this reason that each Yom Kippur we make intercession for the world and petition YHWH to give us at least one more year. One more year to bring His people out of Babylon and into Torah, and one more year to bring more Jewish people to a knowledge of Messiah.
Each year the sins of the world are rapidly increasing and the time of reckoning is approaching.
I am asking you all to step up as the Sons of Light and chip in to help support the work that we are doing here at WNAE.
We must now raise at least $600 by the end of the day today (9/18/23) to clear bills hitting our account tonight and avoid a chain reaction of returned items and fees!
In these uncertain times, we need your support more than ever. The time is short, and there is much work to be done. As you might imagine, donations are low. If you can, please donate. This is no time to pull back from the great work in front of us!
As you know we have been digging ourselves out of a budget shortfall. As I have said to you many times, I look on this work as a co-operative one with me, and all of you combining our resources together in order to get the job done of helping to teach this great truth to all in the world who will listen. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, you are the ones who make it all possible by your contributions and your prayers for our work. I truly appreciate your help in every way.
May your wife be healed by the blood of the atonement, by the stripes Yeshua took for her and that you may not have to depend upon the pharmekia of the Great Harlot who deceives all men with her sorcery.