In the passages from Enoch that we read, Azazel was one of the angels who mated with women to spawn the Nephilim. He also taught men how to make weapons of iron and bronze and women the art of beautifying their bodies with jewelry, makeup, and hair dye. For this he is cast into a hole in the desert and chained there with jagged rocks put on top of him. Also Enoch says with regard to Azazel: "To him ascribe all sin." This is why the ceremonial placing of sins on a goat who is let either into the wilderness or more likely off a cliff to die may have something to do with Azazel. Notably an alternate translation for his name is scapegoat. He is also considered the personification of impurity.
He is also purportedly the leader of the Sei'irim, goat demons who haunt the desert to whom many primitive semitic tribes offered sacrifices. Since he also is mentioned in Mandæan, Sabean, and Arabian mythologies, he may partially derive from a Babylonian deity that was later degraded by the aforementioned peoples. In Islamic demonology his name is changed to Iblis, or despair.
According to the Dictionarre Infernal Azazel is the guardian of goats, and today, Sept. 10th, was the Jewish feast of Expiation, in which the lots were cast for the two goats and one is set into the wilderness.
The worship of Azazel was common among the semitic peopls as Jeroboam appointed preist for the Sei'irim, but since this practice supposedly involved the copulation of women with goats, all these places of worship were later destroyed by Josiah.
Given the combination of his goat like traits, his ascription of all sin, as well as his dwelling under jagged rocks in the desert, one can see how this somewhat strange ritual in Leviticus may have evolved.
