The angel turned back to Abraham. "Know from this moment that the Eternal One has chosen you. Be of good courage and use this authority, as far as I bid you, against him who slanders truth."
Then Iaoel put words of power into Abraham's mouth, words meant to condemn Azazel to his fate:
"Say to him: 'Be the burning coal of the Furnace of the earth! Go, Azazel, into the inaccessible parts of the earth! Your heritage is over those who exist with you, those born with the stars and clouds, the men whose portion you are, and who through your being exist. Your enmity is your own justification. By your perdition, disappear from me.'"
Abraham spoke the words exactly as the angel had taught him. The sentence was absolute. Azazel was not merely banished. He was condemned to be the fire of punishment itself, carrying the furnace of the underworld wherever he went. A walking prison of flame.
But Azazel did not leave quietly. He kept speaking, kept trying to engage Abraham in conversation. The angel warned: "Answer him not, for God has given him power over those who answer him. However much he speaks to you, do not respond, so that his will may have no course in you."
Abraham obeyed. However much Azazel spoke, Abraham answered nothing whatsoever.
Silence was the weapon. The fallen angel's power depended on dialogue, on getting a response, on drawing the righteous into conversation. Abraham shut the door. He said not a single word. And Azazel's voice faded into nothing.
The angel said to me: 2[“A braham!” A nd I said: “Here am I, thy servant.” And h e said:
“Know from henceforth that the Eternal One hath chosen thee, (He) whom thou lovest; be of good
courage and use this authority, so far as I bid thee, against him who slandereth truth; 3 should I not b e ab l e
to put him to shame who hath s cat t ered over the earth the secrets of heaven 4 and h ath rebelled 5 against
t h e M i g h t y One?6]7 Say to him: ‘Be thou the burning coal of the Furnace of the earth;8 go,
Azazel, into the inaccessible parts of the earth;9[for thy heritage is ( t o be) over those existing with
t hee being born with th e stars and clouds,10 with the men whose portion thou art, and (w h o ) t h r o ug h t hy
b ei n g exist;11 and thine enmity is justification. On this account by thy perdition disappear from m e.” A n d
Azazel has thus lost his “garment of life,” o r robe of immortality, and become mortal, while A braham
gains it.
S, Abraham.
Cf. John viii. 44 (“h e [th e Dev il] is a liar and the father thereof”). Satan—here Azazel—is par
excellence “the slanderer” (Ò *4V$@8@H), “he who slandereth truth.”
The fallen ang el s ( 1 E noch vii., lxix. 6 ff.), and especially Azazel (1 Enoch viii. 1), are represented
as having brought moral ruin upon the earth by teaching men t h e use of m agic, astrology, and science
(including the use of warlike weapons). A close parallel to ou r t ext exists in 1 Enoch ix. 6: “See what
Azazel hath done, how h e hath taught all unrigh teousness on earth and revealed th e s ecret things of the
world which were wrought in the heavens.”
So Samm ael, “th e great prin ce in heaven,” is reproach e d b y the Torah for rebellion against God
(Pirke de R. Eliezer xiii.: “Th e T or ah b egan to cry aloud saying: Why, O Sammael! now that the world is
created, is it the time to rebel against the Omnipresent? Is it like a time when thou shouldest lift up thyself on high
(Job xxxix. 18)?”). Thus the two chief sins of Azazel consist in “scattering the secrets of heaven upon the
earth,” and in devising rebellion against the Most High.
= probably LXX. Ò ÊFPLD`H (Heb. h~ ’l); see chap. viii. note1. Kohler suggests Heb. ’abâr, “Mighty
One” (of Jacob), Gen. xlix. 24 (LXX, Ò *L<VFJ0H), Is. xlix. 26 (LXX, ÆFPbH).
Bracketed clause attested by A K, omitted by S.
Azazel is condemned to be in h imself the fire of Hell; cf. xxxi. (“burnt w i t h th e fire of Azazel’s
tongue”). Thus wherever he goes he, as it were, carries Hell with him—a conception tha t ap p e ar s t o b e
peculiar to our Apocalypse in early apocalyptic literature (cf. Volz, p. 291).
i. e. i n t o t hose parts of the earth reserved for him till the fin al judgement. In 1 Enoch x. 4 Azazel
is condemned to be bound and placed in Dudâêl, i n t h e d es er t , and there to be imprisoned in darkness
till the final judgement.
This expression is obscure. It apparently refers to the m e n w h o b el o ng (? by birth) to Azazel, whose
lot h as been pre-determin ed (see next note).
The wicked are Azazel’s “portion,” i.e. they h av e been assigned to him from the beginning. The
idea seems to be predestinarian; cf. Wisdom ii. 24 (“by the envy of the devil death entered into th e world,
an d they that are his portion make trial thereof”), Ap. Bar. xlii. 7 (“for corruption will take th ose th at
belong to it, and l i f e t h o s e t h a t b elon g to it”); 1 En och xli. 8. [Does the phrase in the previous clause,
“being born with the stars and clouds,” mean those who by birth and creation belong to the s phere of
night and darkness, as opposed to the righteous, who belong to t h e re al m o f l ig h t ? See 1 Enoch xli. 8 and
Charles’s note.]
I uttered the words which the an gel had taught me. And he said: “Abraham!” And I said: “Here am I,
thy servant.” ]1
And the angel said to me: “Answer him not; for God hath given him power (lit. will) over
those who do answer him.”2 [And the angel spake to me a second time and said: “Now rath er,
however much he speak to thee, answer him not, that his will may have no free cours e i n t h ee , because
the Eternal and Mighty One h at h given him 3weight and will;3 answer h im not.” I did what was
commanded me by the angel;]4 and however much he spake to me, I answered him 5nothing
whatsoever.5
Abraham and the Angel ascend on the Wings of the Birds to Heaven
(Chapters XV.-XVI.).
