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Journey of a Passage

Isaiah 34:14–15

Lilit: screech owl, lamia, onocentaur, Lilith

"The satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there." The Hebrew lilit, a night creature related to the Akkadian demon lilitu, became the KJV's "screech owl," the Vulgate's lamia, the library's Greek "onocentaurs," and in modern translations "night creature" or "Lilith." The Great Isaiah Scroll has the plural, liliyyot. Medieval Jewish folklore later made Lilith Adam's first wife, a legend the text does not know.

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The oracle as first spoken or written8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)
  2. Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
Greek
  1. Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Isaiah
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. 8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)

    The oracle as first spoken or written

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. The oldest copies of Isaiah are the Qumran scrolls: the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a, about 125 BC, nearly complete), 1QIsa-b (1Q8) and some twenty other fragmentary manuscripts.

  2. c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)

    Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 34:14–15. Reads the plural liliyyot ("lilith-creatures") where the Masoretic Text has the singular lilit, with the verbs in the plural to match; the desert creatures in v. 14 are spelled more fully, and the arrow-snake (qippoz) of v. 15 appears in a different form (qippod, the word used in 34:11). Otherwise the differences are of spelling (fuller use of vowel letters) and small grammatical forms.

  3. Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Et occurrent dæmonia onocentauris, et pilosus clamabit alter ad alterum; ibi cubavit lamia, et invenit sibi requiem. Ibi habuit foveam ericius, et enutrivit catulos, et circumfodit, et fovit in umbra ejus; illuc congregati sunt milvi, alter ad alterum.

    Latin numbering: Isaiah 34:14–15. Jerome translated Isaiah from Hebrew (c. AD 400).

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    וּפָגְשׁ֤וּ צִיִּים֙ אֶת־אִיִּ֔ים וְשָׂעִ֖יר עַל־רֵעֵ֣הוּ יִקְרָ֑א אַךְ־שָׁם֙ הִרְגִּ֣יעָה לִּילִ֔ית וּמָצְאָ֥ה לָ֖הּ מָנֽוֹחַ׃ שָׁ֣מָּה קִנְּנָ֤ה קִפּוֹז֙ וַתְּמַלֵּ֔ט וּבָקְעָ֖ה וְדָגְרָ֣ה בְצִלָּ֑הּ אַךְ־שָׁ֛ם נִקְבְּצ֥וּ דַיּ֖וֹת אִשָּׁ֥ה רְעוּתָֽהּ׃

    Desert creatures will meet hyenas, the goat-demon will call to his fellow; there too the lilit will settle and find a resting place (v. 14)

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 34:14–15.

  5. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.

  6. Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Isaiah

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Et les démons s’y rencontreront avec les onocentaures, et ils se crieront l’un à l’autre. C’est là que demeureront les onocentaures; car ils y trouveront un lieu de repos. C’est là que le hérisson a fait son nid, et que la terre y à caché en sûreté ses petits. C’est là que les cerfs se sont rencontrés, et qu’ils se sont vus face à face.

    Greek (digital file) numbering: Isaiah 34:14–15. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check only); a C check needs Ziegler's Göttingen Isaiah or Rahlfs–Hanhart.

What changed, and why

Classification: a manuscript variant (singular / plural in 1QIsa-a) plus strong translation differences in the animal and demon names.

The list of ruin-dwellers (tsiyyim, iyyim, sa'ir, lilit, qippoz, dayyot) is uncertain; the site does not assign modern species.

The Vulgate's lamia and the Greek's onocentaurs show ancient translators reading demonic beings into the ruins.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documented1QIsa-a has the plural liliyyot. Described from a transcription.
  • Strongly supportedLilit is related to the Akkadian lilitu.
  • Conflicts with current evidenceThe verse refers to Adam's first wife. A medieval legend.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Isaiah 34: The Day of the LORD's Vengeance →The nations are summoned to hear: God's wrath is on all their armies; the host of heaven dissolves and "the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll" (34:1–4). God's sword, bathed in heaven, comes down on Edom: a "sacrifice in Bozrah," the year of recompense for Zion's cause (vv. 5–8). Edom's streams turn to pitch; its smoke rises forever; it becomes the home of owls, jackals, goat-demons and the night creature lilit, each with its mate, as written "in the book of the LORD" (vv. 9–17).
    • Investigation: The Great Isaiah Scroll →Found in a cave near the Dead Sea in 1947, the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a) is the only complete book of the Hebrew Bible among the Dead Sea Scrolls, about a thousand years older than the medieval codices behind printed Hebrew Bibles. It agrees with the Masoretic Text in most of its words and differs in thousands of small ways: spelling, grammar, scribal slips, corrections, and a few real variants. This investigation explains what the scroll is, how its differences are classified, and which ones matter.