It is this reference which Internet pseudo-scholars and professional researchers alike often quote without hesitation. It should be noted, however, that among the more serious examinations of Lilith, this reference is actually much contested. If it does indeed exist, however, it would associate her with evil, the night, the desert, and flight, facets which can be seen in her earliest representation in "Gilgamesh and the Huluppu Tree."
The scripture's text reads, according to Raphael Patai's translation: "The wild-cat shall meet with the jackals / And the satyr shall cry to his fellow, / Yea, Lilith shall repose there / And find her a place of rest" (223). The 1901 American Standard Version states: "And the wild beasts of the desert shall meet with the wolves, and the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; yea, the night-monster shall settle there, and shall find her a place of rest." Interestingly, the footnote to "night-monster" reads "Hebrew: Lilith." Verse 15 states that it is "there" [in the desert] that the "dart-snake shall make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shade," an image which seems to be borrowed from the "Huluppu Tree" tale.
Other translations use the phrase "nightjar" (1984 New World Translation), "the night hag" (Revised Standard Version, Gehman 561, Eerdman's Bible Dictionary), "the screech owl" (Baring and Cashford 510, Knappert 189, Buttrick 133), "night monster" (Encyclopaedia Judaica 246), and "night devil" (Sykes 126). Whether or not the reference was directly to Lilith, it does indicate that the notion of a character whose attributes were similar to those of Lilith was alive in the cultural imagination at this time.
"Gilgamesh and the Huluppu-Tree"
The Lilith Relief
Isaiah 34:14
Testament of Solomon
The Talmud
The Nippur Bowls
The Alphabet of Ben Sira
Book of Raziel
The Zohar
Hebrew Amuletic Tradition
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