Isaiah 34:14-15, Lilith

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. 

 //Here is the perfect verse if you enjoy idle speculation. The Hebrew word
Lilith in this verse is a hapax legomenon-that is, it occurs just once in
the Bible, so its meaning can't be determined by comparison to other
passages. Scholars are forced to interpret its meaning by resorting to
related languages, other early translations of the text, or Jewish
tradition.
 
And what is Jewish tradition? Lilith is generally thought to be related to a
class of female demons. This isn't far from the Assyrian word "lilitu," a
nasty female spirit. Jewish folklore tells us Lilith was the first wife of
Adam, but Adam's domineering ways proved to much for her, and she left him
for an angel. This paved the way for Adam's second wife, Eve. The resulting
Lilith legend still finds its way into various occult and fantasy settings.
 
Naturally, tradition is unacceptable. We can't have a mythical figure
meandering around in our Bible. A plethora of Bible interpretations render
the word in different ways, from "screech owl" to "night creature" to "night
hag" to "night monster," most of them playing on its similarity to the
Hebrew word "laylah," meaning "night." 
 
All of which is quite unconvincing. I think this is one of those mysteries
of the Bible we'll never uncover.
 
(If you're interested in a fun, tongue-in-cheek introduction to the Lilith
of mythology, you might check out this Dubious Disciple book review:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/154076051. For obvious reasons, this
book, while "religious" of sorts, didn't quite fit the genre of my blog.)