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.

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).