Direct or Possible Biblical References

Isaiah 34:14f

Wildcats shall meet with hyenas,

goat-demons shall call to each other;
there too Lilith shall repose,
and find a place to rest.
There shall the owl nest
and lay and hatch and brood in its shadow

NRSV

Lilith in the Dead Sea Scrolls

4QSongs of the Sage / 4QShir

4Q510 frag. 11.4-6a // frag. 10.1f

This passage is clearly based on Isaiah 34:14. There are two points of interest to us. The first is
that the context makes it clear that the community that produced this saw the Isaiah passage as
referring to the demonic rather than just desert animals (see the discussion on the meaning of the
Isaiah passage). Second, if Martinez's translation is accurate (I have not yet looked at the
original), we have 'liliths' in the plural, rather than MT Isaiah's singular. Does the author have a
different Isaiah reading with the plural, or is this just poetic license?

The translation is that of Florentino Garcia Martinez. The note(s) are mine.

And I, the Sage,

declare the grandeur of his radiance
in order to frighten and terrify
all the spirits of the ravaging angels
and the bastard spirits,
demons, Liliths, owls and [jackals...]
and those who strike unexpectedly
to lead astray the spirit of knowledge....
11QPsAp

It is also worth mentioning that although she does not appear there by name, Joseph Baumgarten
has argued that the DSS poem Wiles of the wicked woman (4Q184) may also be a reference to
her (of course, the poem on the surface, is about the wicked woman in Prov. 1-9).

Second (Syriac) apocalypse of Baruch

Originally in Greek, but surviving only in Syriac, 2 Baruch was written by a Jewish author,
sometime in the late first or early second century, CE. It is likely a response to the destruction of
Jerusalem by the Romans, rather than the earlier destruction by the Babylonians which it purports
to mourn.
2 Baruch 10:7-8
But we, the living, woe to us,
because we have seen those afflictions of Zion
and that which has befallen Jerusalem.

I shall call the Sirens from the sea,

and you, Lilin[1], come from the desert,
and you, demons and dragons from the woods.
Awake and gird up your loins to mourn,
and raise lamentations with me,
and mourn with me.
From the translation by A.F.J. Klijn, found in James Charlesworth's The Old Testament
Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1, (Doubleday, 1983).

Lilith Incantation Bowls

Lilith Exorcized on a Persian Bowl

(Private collection)

You are bound and sealed,

all you demons and devils and liliths,
by that hard and strong,
mighty and powerful bond with which are tied Sison and Sisin....
The evil Lilith,
who causes the hearts of men to go astray
and appears in the dream of the night
and in the vision of hte day,
Who burns and casts down with nightmare,
attacks and kills children,
boys an girls.
She is conquered and sealed
away from the house
and from the threshold of Bahram-Gushnasp son of Ishtar-Nahid
by the talisman of Metatron,
the great prince
who is called the Great Healer of Mercy....
who vanquishes demons and devils,
black arts and mighty spells
and keeps them away from the house
and threshold of Bahram-Gushnasp, son of Ishtar-Nahid.
Amen, Amen, Selah.
Vanquished are the black arts and mighty spells.
Vanquished the bewitching women,
they, their witchery and their spells,
their curses and their invocations,
and kept away from the four walls
of the house of Bahram-Gushnasp, the son of Ishtar-Hahid.
Vanquished and trampled down are the bewitching women --
vanquished on earth and vanquished in heaven.
Vanquished are their constellations and stars.
Bound are the works of their hands.
Amen, Amen, Selah.
(Patai78:228f)
Lilith gets Divorced

This is the get for a demon and spirits and Satan

...and Lilith in order to banish them from... the entire house.
Yah ...cut off the king of the demons
...the great ruler of the liliths.
I adjure you ...whether you are male or female,
I adjure you....
Just as the demons write letters of divorce
and give them to their wives and do not again return to them,
so take your letter of divorce,
accept your stipend share [ketubba],
and go and leave and depart from the house....
Amen, Amen, Amen, Selah.
(Patai78:226f)
Lilith Divorced Again

(University Museum, University of Pennsylvania)

In the name of the Lord of salvations.

Designated is this bowl
for the sealing of the house of this
Geyonai bar Mamai,
that there flee from him the evil Lilith,
in the name of "YHWH-El has scattered";
the Lilith,
the male lilin,
the female liliths,
the Hag [ghost?],
and the Snatcher,
the three of you,
the four of you
and the five of you.
Naked are you sent forth,
nor are you clad,
with your hair disheveled
and let fly behind your backs.
It is made known to you,
whose father is named Palhas
and whose mother is Pelahdad:
Hear and obey
and come from from the house and dwelling of this
Geyonai bar Mamai,
and from Rashnoi his wife,
the daughter of Marath.
...Be informed herewith
that Rabbi Joshua bar Perahia
has sent the ban against you....
A divorce-writ [gita] has come down to us from Heaven,
and therein is found written
your advisement and your intimidation,
in the name of Palsa-Pelisa ["Divorcer-Divorced"],
who renders to thee thy divorce and thy separation,
your divorces and your separations.
Thou, Lilith, male lili and female lilith, Hag and Snatcher,
 be under the ban...of Joshua bar Perahia,
who has thus spoken:
A divorce-writ has come for you
from across the sea....
Hear it and depart from
the house and dwelling of this
Geyonai bar Mamai,
and from Rashnoi his wife,
the daughter of Marath.
You shall not again appear to them,
either in a deram by night
or in slumber by day,
because you are sealed with the signet of El-Shaddai,
and with the signet of the house of Joshua bar Perahia
and by the Seven who are before him.
Thou, Lilith, male lili and female lilith, Hag and Snatcher,
I adjure you
by the Strong One of Abraham,
by the Rock of Isaac,
by the Shaddai of Jacob,
by Yah [is] his name...,
by Yah his memorial...
I adjure you to turn away from this
Geyonai bar Mamai,
and from Rashnoi his wife,
the daughter of Marath.
Your divorce and writ and letter of separation...
sent through holy angels...
the Hosts of fire in the spheres,
the Chariots of El-Panim before him standing,
the beasts worshipping in the fire of his throne
and in the water... Amen, Amen, Selah, Halleluiah!

(Patai78:225f)

Direct Talmudic References

b. Erubin 18b

Rabbi Jeremia ben Eleazar said, "During those years (after their expulsion from the Garden), in
which Adam, the first man, was separated from Eve, he became the father of ghouls and demons
and lilin." Rabbi Meir said, "Adam, the first man, being very pious and finding that he had caused
death to come into the world, sat fasting for 130 years, and separated himself from his wife for
130 years, and wore fig vines for 130 years. His fathering of evil spirits, referred to here, came as
a result of wet dreams.
b. Erubin 100b

Lilith grows long hair.

b. Nidda 24b

Lilith is a demoness with a human appearance except that she has wings.
b. Shab. 151b

Rabbi Hanina said, "One may not sleep alone in a house, for Lilith takes hold of whoever sleeps
alone in a house."
b. Baba Bathra 73a-b

Rabba bar bar Hana said, "I once saw Hormin, a son of Lilith, running on the battlements of
Mahoza.... When the demonic government heard of it, they killed him [for showing himself]."
Talmud citations are informed by the translations of I. Epstein. (The Babylonian Talmud. London:
Socino Press, 1978) and Raphael Patai, Patai81, pp. 184f.).

The First Eve

Genesis Rabbah

H. Freedman and M. Simon, eds. The Midrash Rabbah, 10 vols. London: Socino Press, 1939.

Genesis Rabbah contains two references to a tradition that may be related to the Alphabet of Ben
Sira, although probably not directly to Lilith. Here we find a much earlier example of the idea that
Eve was Adam's second wife. But in this tradition the first woman is unnamed, and there is no
reason to think that she should be identified with Lilith. In addition, the reason given for the failure
of the first marriage is entirely different than that given in the Alphabet. Whereas Ben Sira has the
problem center around sexuality and dominance, R. Judah b. Rabbi has Adam apparently
disgusted by seeing the process of the woman being created "full of discharge and blood"
(although this may instead be a reference to menses).
In spite of these differences, this tradition certainly serves as a probable source for Ben Sira. It
may well be that Ben Sira's primary contribution to the tradition is to connect the well known
stories of the demoness with the midrash of the failed prototype for Eve. [AH]

Genesis Rabbah 18.4

And the man said, "This is now, etc." (Gen 2.3)

R. Judah b. Rabbi said: At first He created her for him and he saw her full of discharge and blood;
thereupon He removed her from him and recreated her a second time. Hence it is said: This
time[1]she is bone of my bone.
Genesis Rabbah 22.7

Out of this argument, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, etc." (Gen 4.8), R. Judah b. Rabbi
said: Their quarrel was about the first Eve. Said R. Abiu: The first Eve had returned to dust. Then
about what was their quarrel?
Notes

[1]. The Hebrew phrase usually translated "This is now" (ZoT HaPa'aM) can also be translated
"This time." That appears to be how this interpreter understands it.