Entry on Lilith: Dictionary of Demons and Deities in the Bible

Lilith. Sometimes means night owl.  Mesopotamian background: “Here we find Inanna who plants a tree later hoping to cut from its wood a throne and a bed for herself.  But as the tree grows, a snake settled in the top and in the trunk the demon ki-sikl-lil-la makes her lair” (520).  The difficulty is how this relates to Isaiah 34:14.

(Thanks to Brian Godawa’s site for the artwork)

For starters, the standard conservative/deist explanation makes little sense.  It’s basically telling of a horrible area where…..owls live.  Sorry, that doesn’t work.  Yet, Isaiah doesn’t directly link Lilith to the Mesopotamian background, yet that could be simply understood.