Azekah (Hastings' Dictionary)

A city of Judah, named Jos 10'"-", 1 S 17', 2 Ch 11», Neh ll**. It was evidently near the valley of Elah and near Gath, and was a frontier fortress of Rehoboam. The Jews inhabited it ' and the villages thereof ' after the Captivity. The later notices would agree with a site in the south, where the name might be traced at Tell el 'Azek ; but this would not suit the earlier notices. The name El 'Azek is stated to occur in the hills north of the valley of Elah, but • AverruruMt. So Olsh.

$ 188», Stede, i 124", treating azd'zil ftj9 (anomalously) softened from the intensive form 'azalzet. t The form of the word is peculiar, and resembles one of the tjTies of Arab, 'broken,* or collective, plurals. This was re- marked long ago by Bochart (Hieroz. i. 750. — with many examples), though he atssigned to it an improbable meaning : Steiner (Schenkel, liibellex. v.

599), adopting the same sug- gestion, but interpreting more probably, conjectures that originally 'azdzU was a collective designation of such spirits of the desert (from a sing. 'azrd^ ; Wriglit, .4r. (rraTmn. i. § 305, II.), and that it only gradually became the name of a single spirit. t Not only Gabriel and Michael in Dn, but also many of the other names of angels in the Book of Enoch, are compounded with Kl ' CJod ' (Ariel, Raphael, Kokabiel, Taraiel, etc. : see vi, 7).

ij The rendering of AV gcape-goat, inherited from the 'Great HiMe' of l.S.'J9, may be traced back through Seb. Miinster I.' cAper abiturus'), Coverdale ('the free goat'), Luther ('der ledige Bock), and Jerome ("caper emissarius') to the rpayot Lwtpx^fMvtt (v.'o «^<i>io<) of S>'Qimachus(2nd cent.) ; but implies « derivation (SlNJi^rrSlK \\!_ 'the gmTig goat') opposed to the arenius of the Heb.

language (which does not form such com- pounds), besides being mconsistent with the marked antithesis between for 'A zazft and for Jehovah, which does not leave it open to doubt that the former is conceived as a personal being. to whom (cf. V.2' ) the goat is sent. The Targ. of Pa. -Jon. (on v.

i») and other Jewish authorities interpret 'Azazel as the name of the ' strong and difficult place* (Tpi "j'pn inK,— Implying the Tiew that the first part of the word waa in some way connected with ^V »trong) in the wildemeas to which the goat wa« sent : the LXX (v.S rm K<rtTefi/Ttt,^, v.IO tit rrf ir»Teu.<rnf, v. 38 tlf i,'i»i>) seems to have rendered freely, treating the word in v. 8 as meaning ihe out sent awai/ (see Field, Utxapla, Auctarium, p. 60), and in v.

i0-2fi a-s meaning dimnUsal ; the latter rendorinn has also been adopted by some moderns. But these expl.iiia- tions are equally open to philological or other objections, which place them out of the question. All the principal modern authorities agree in explaining 'Azazel as a personal name.

Srapr-fioat Is, however, a felicitous expression ; it has he<-onie clo-ssicjil in English; and there is no reason why it should nut be retained as a term descriptive of the goat sent into the wilderness, proWded it be clearly understood that it is In no way ft rendering of the Heb. 7TKtv. the repeated investigations of the Survey partiei failed to establish its existence. C. R. Condbb.