And they shall no longer
sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat-demons. This clause provides
persuasive evidence that the “slaughter” mentioned in verse 3 is not solely for
eating but involves a cultic act. The “goat-demons” (seʿirim) are surely
to be associated with Azazel in chapter 16. While our knowledge of their
precise nature is limited, they are clearly archaic nature gods of the wild
realm “beyond the camp,” outside the pale of monotheistic civilization that the
sundry Priestly writers are laboring to create. Monogamy, of course, is a
reiterated biblical metaphor for monotheism, and so worship of the goat-demons
and other deities is an act of promiscuity, “whoring.” (Robert Alter, The
Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 1:425)
