Azazel or Azazael or Azâzêl (Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

: עזאזל, Azazel) is a term used three times in the Hebrew scriptures

Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...

, and later in Hebrew mythology

Hebrew mythology

Hebrew mythology may refer to:*pre-Judaistic Canaanite mythology*Jewish mythology**Messiah**Aggadah**Kabbalah-See also:*Middle Eastern mythology *Religion and mythology*Ancient Semitic religion*Panbabylonism...

 as the enigmatic name of a character.

The term in the Bible is limited to three uses in Leviticus

Leviticus

The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible, and the third of five books of the Torah ....

 16, where a goat is designated לַעֲזָאזֵֽל la-aza'zeyl; either "for absolute removal" or "for Azazel" and outcast in the desert as part of Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...

.

Later Azazel was considered by some Jewish sources to be a supernatural

Supernatural

The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...

 being mentioned in connection with the ritual of the Day of Atonement

Day of Atonement

Day of Atonement may refer to:*Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement* Day of Atonement , a national day established in 1995 by the Nation of Islam...

 (Lev. xvi.).
The Brown–Driver–Briggs Hebrew Lexicon gives Azazel as a reduplicative intensive of the stem azel "remove", hence azazel, "entire removal".