LEB has this as Lilith, in the sense of the night-hag or demon:
And desert creatures shall meet with hyenas, and a goat-demon shall
call to his neighbor; surely there Lilith shall repose, and she shall
find a resting place for herself.
In no gloss that I've seen has "screech owl" as the primary meaning of lilit. Every gloss refers to a night-hag, night demon from many witnesses in Assyrian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and other ANE languages as the primary and most-likely meaning. To the best of my knowledge, the translation as "screech owl" is conjectural and is not attested to by ancient witnesses:
The birds are surely not various kinds of owl, as Aharoni believes,
even identifying lîlîṯ and śeʿîrîm as owls.
Frevel, C. (2006). תַּן. G. J. Botterweck, H. Ringgren, & H.-J. Fabry (Eds.), D. E. Green (Trans.), Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (Revised Edition, Vol. 15, p. 719). Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Also note the reference to goat-demon or satyr, sa'ir, in the same passage, which is another supernatural creature.
Here is the HALOT entry on sa'ir:
III שָׂעִיר = I; MHeb. a type of demon: pl. שְׂעִירִ(י)ם: the hairy
one, a goat (buck) demon, satyr ? (for bibliography see Gesenius-B.;
Reicke-R. Hw. 325, 316; see further N.H. Snaith VT 25 (1975) 115-118;
see also the versions on the following instances; cf. also SamP.
versions לשערים laššārəm, Tg. לתערים. —1. Lv 17:7 Is 13:21 34:14 2C
11:15; cj. 2K 23:8 for בָּמוֹת הַשְּׁעָרִים prp. בָּמַת הַשְּׂעִירִים,
see BHS and ZürBib.; cf. Gesenius-B. under I שַׁעַר (p. 855a); REB: he
dismantled the shrines of the demons; NEB: the hill-shrines of the
demons (margin: satyrs) :: Gray Kings3 730: cj. בָּמַת הַשֹּׁעֲרִים
the sanctuary of the gatekeepers (the spirits), :: TOB and Snaith VT
25 (1975) 116: MT; NRSV: he brokedown the high places of the gates.
—General remark: according to Snaith the שְׂ׳ of Lv 17:7 2C 11:15 (on
Dt 32:2 → IV *שָׂעִיר) are rain deities or fertility deities, the
Baals of the rainstorms; he suggests that the שְׂ of Is 13:21 34:14
should also be interpreted thus (see VT 25 (1975) 118) but simple
animals without any religious connection could also be intended (see
p. 115). —2. expressions: with זבח (לַשְּׂ׳) Lv 17:7; with נָתַץ 2K
23:8, see above for cj.; with עמד hif. (כֹּהֲנִים לַבָּמוֹת וְלַשְּׂ׳)
2C 11:15; with II קרא (qal, cj. nif.) Is 34:14; with רקד pi. Is 13:21.
†
Here is the HALOT entry on Lilit:
Donner-R. Inschriften 2:46; JArm., Montgomery Inc. Texts 75ff; Rossell
137b also with לילי דיכרא as well as לילית ניקבתא; Syr. lēlītā, Mnd.
(Drower-M. Dictionary 236b, also pl. liliata), in incantations MAOG
4:110ff; Akk. < lilū, lilītu and ardat lilī, group of three storm
demons, < Sum. lil (Zimmern 69; AHw. 553b; Haussig Wb. 1:48, 275);
derived in folk-etymology from לַיִל: Lilit, (fem.) demon connected
with sexual relationships (incubus-succubus, RLA 2:110f, → חנק: ? in
the “Burney-Relief” AfO 11:350ff, 554ff; 12:128ff, 269ff; Syria
29:85ff; Albright BASOR 67:16ff; Böhl JbEOL 2:725f; :: Vaccari Osiris
5:469ff; female apparition in the night, screech-owl; Driver PEQ
91:55ff; nightjar (the goat-sucker bird); see further → Rudolph
Mandäer 1:2107; Enz. Judt. 10:972f: Is 34:14 (1QIsa pl. ליליות), cj.
Jb 18:15 for מִבְּלִי־לוֹ (Beer; Hölscher; Fohrer). †
Koehler, L., Baumgartner, W., Richardson, M. E. J., & Stamm, J. J. (1994–2000). The Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon of the Old Testament (electronic ed., pp. 528–529). Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Note that these two animals are not the only supernatural references in Isaiah. There are references to serpents, sea-monsters, etc. E.g.:
Is 27.1 (LEB)
On that day, Yahweh will punish with his cruel, great and strong sword
Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and Leviathan (liwyathan), the
twisting serpent, and he will kill the sea monster (tannin) that is in
the sea.
Isaiah 51.9 (LEB)
Awake! Awake; put on strength, O arm of Yahweh! Awake as in days of
long ago, the generations of a long time back! Are you not the one who
cut Rahab (Rahab) in pieces, the one who pierced the sea-dragon (tannin)?
When monsters appear in prophetic imagery, it does not mean that the author is claiming there are physical monsters, dragons, satyrs or night hags. This is prophetic imagery, like references to dragons and Apollyon in Revelation. What matters is the message being conveyed in the prophecy. So for example, Rahab, the sea-monster is a reference to Egypt, itself a reference for the world of gentiles. Night hags can be references to women wandering around without a husband and thus barrenness (thus an appropriate image for the desolation of Edom in this passage).
To add another layer of interpretation, in prophecies against a people, animals can be a reference to the nobility of the foreign power. Thus the description of animals being slaughtered and dark spirits left to roam the barren landscape is a powerful image of the scope of destruction. That is Hermeneia's commentary:
But it is also clear that the animals mentioned are only metaphors for
the human population of Edom and its important city Bozrah. There is a
long convention in West Semitic of using animal names as designations
for human nobility, so the prophet’s audience would immediately have
thought of Edom’s human leaders as the sacrificial animals God was
slaughtering. Moreover, this motif of Yahweh’s sacrifice of his human
enemies is found already in Zeph 1:7–8, from the time of Josiah; in
Jer 46:10, from c. 605 BCE; and in Ezek 39:17–19, from the first half
of the Babylonian exile. Here this slaughter of Edom’s nobility is not
restricted to the mid-level nobility, the rams and billy goats. As v.
7 indicates, the most powerful of Edom’s leaders, the wild oxen
(רְאֵמִים, rĕʾēmîm) will go down with them, and the young bulls
(וּפָרִים, ûpārîm) with the mighty bulls (עִם־אַבִּירִים,
ʿim-ʾabbîrîm). The slaughter will be so great that their land will be
saturated (וְרִוְּתָה, wĕriwwĕtâ) with blood, and their dust will be
greasy (יְדֻשָּׁן, yĕduššān) with fat. This is coming, because Yahweh
will have his day of vengeance and year of recompense for the cause of
Zion (v. 8). [..]
Edom’s dry water-courses or wadis will be turned to pitch, its dust to
brimstone, and its land to burning pitch (v. 9). The burning land will
never be quenched, day or night; its smoke will rise forever; it will
remain a ruin throughout the generations with no one ever crossing
through it (v. 10). The imagery here of an utterly desolate,
inhospitable, and abandoned landscape, burning with an unquenchable
fire, comes close to the traditional descriptions of the overthrow of
Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain (Gen 19:24–28; Deut
29:23; Isa 13:19–20; Jer 49:18; 50:40; Amos 4:11; Zeph 2:9), then, via
the pagan tophet, of the sacrificial burning of children in the valley
of the son of Hinnom (בְּגֵיא בֶן־הִנֹּם, bĕgêʾ ben-hinnōm, 2 Kgs
23:10; Jer 7:31–32; 19:2–6; 32:35; cf. Isa 66:24), and of the later
descriptions of hell (γέενναν, geennan, Matt 5:22, 29–30; 10:28; 18:9;
23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5; Jas 3:6; cf. Rev 20:14–15;
21:8). At v. 11 the prophet drops the fire imagery to elaborate on the
imagery of an abandoned landscape inhabited only by wild creatures of
the deserted steppe. The identification of many of these desert
creatures is highly uncertain. The jackdaw (קָאַת, qāʾat, or “owl”)
and the hedgehog (וְקִפּוֹד, wĕqippôd, or “short-eared owl”), the
great owl (יַנְשׁוֹף, yanšôp, or “ibis” or “bee-eater”), and the raven
(עֹרֵב, ʿōrēb) will dwell there. There will be no human builder there
to stretch out a measuring line (קַו, qaw) or drop a stone plumb line
to check the depth of a well or to see that the wall he is building is
vertical (cf. Isa 28:17; Amos 7:7–8; Zech 4:10). The only line there
will be the line of chaos that Yahweh stretches over it; the only
stones, those of empty badlands. [..] Wildcats
(צִיִּים, sîyîm) will meet hyennas (אִיִּים, ʾîyîm, or “jackals”) and
a goat-demon (שָׂעִיר, śāʿîr) will call to its companion; there too
the Lilithdemon (לִּילִית, lîlît) will repose and find a resting place
for herself (v. 14). Here the prophet leaves the actual fauna of
deserted places for the common superstitious fear of them that
populates them with frightful demons as well as wild and sometimes
dangerous animals. The goat-demons were similar to the satyrs of the
Greek world, while Lilith was a female demon feared for killing babies
and otherwise creating havoc with human sexuality.
Roberts, J. J. M. (2015). First Isaiah: A Commentary. (P. Machinist, Ed.) (p. 436). Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
In terms of the other questions about Lilit, these are medieval rabbinical traditions. If you look at ancient near east traditions, the issue with Lilit was one of fertility and killing of children. Thus a figure of barrenness and wind blowing over a barren landscape. Here is the excellent Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible entry on Lilith:
I. The Heb term lîlît as a →demon in Isa 34:14 is connected by
popular etymology with the word laylâ ‘night’. But it is certainly to
be considered a loan from Akk lilı̄tu, which is ultimately derived
from Sum líl. II. The Mesopotamian evidence for this demon
reaches back to the 3rd millennium BCE as we can see from the Sumerian
epic ‘Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld’. Here we find Inanna
(→Ishtar) 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 makes its nest
at its roots, Anzu settled in the top and in the trunk the demon
ki-sikil-líl-lá makes her lair. Gilgamesh has to slay the snake. Anzu
and the demon flee so that he can cut down the tree and give the
timber to Inanna. From the term líl we can see that these demons are
related to stormy winds. In Akk texts lilû, lilı̄tu and (w)ardat lilî
often occur together as three closely related demons whose dominion
are the stormy winds. Thus lilû can also be seen as the southwest
wind, lilı̄tu can flee from a house through the window like the wind
or people imagine that she is able to fly like a bird. Of greater
importance, however, is the sexual aspect of the—mainly—female demons
lilı̄tu and (w)ardat lilî. Thus the texts refer to them as the ones
who have no husband, or as the ones who stroll about searching for men
in order to ensnare them or to enter the house of a man through the
window (see the references given by FAUTH 1982:60–61; LACKENBACHER
1971; HUTTER 1988:224–226). But their sexuality is not a normal kind
of sexuality because (w)ardat lilî is a girl with whom a man does not
sleep in the same way as with his wife, as the texts tell us. In this
aspect we can compare these demons with Ishtar who stands at the
window looking for a man in order to seduce him, love him and kill
him. The fact that Lilith’s sexuality is not a regular kind of
sexuality is also illustrated by references which show that she cannot
bear children and that she has no milk but only poison when she gives
her breast as a deceitful wet-nurse to the baby. In all these aspects
Lilith has a character similar to that of Lamashtu. Thus, since the
Middle Babylonian period Lilith and Lamashtu have been assimilated to
each other. This also led to the spreading of Lilith from the
Mesopotamian to the Syrian area. The traditional reading of Arslan
Tash amulet I (ANET 658) suggests that she was revered in Phoenicia. A
reconsideration of the original, however, forces a reading ll wym
‘night and day’ instead of lly[… ‘Lili[th … (BUTTERWECK TUAT
II/3:437). Aramaic magical texts and the scriptures of the Mandaeans
in southern Mesopotamia have clear allusions to the demon (FAUTH
1986). In conclusion we can say that the female demon—lilı̄tu,
(w)ardat lilî)—can be considered a young girl who has not reached
maturity and thus has to stroll about ceaselessly in search of a male
companion. Sexually unfulfilled, she is the perpetual seductress of
men. III. The only reference to this demon in the OT occurs in
Isa 34:14. The whole chapter describes the prophetic judgement on
→Edom which will become waste land. Then all kinds of demons will
dwell there: among them hyenas, tawny owls, vultures and also Lilith.
The different versions and ancient translations of the OT are of some
interest in this case as we can see how they interpreted ‘Lilith’. The
LXX gives the translation ὀνοκένταυρος (cf. also LXX Isa 13:22;
34:11), Aquila’s version has the transliteration Λιλιθ, while
Symmachos’ version gives the name of the Greek demon Λαμία, which
corresponds to Jerome’s Vulgate (also Lamia). In his commentary Jerome
says: “Lamia, who is called Lilith in Hebrew. (…) And some of the
Hebrews believe her to be an Ἔριννυς, i.e. fury”. Still, these
translations and interpretations of Lilith show her ancient connection
to Lamashtu. The onokentauros of the LXX reminds us of those amulets
where Lamashtu is standing upon a donkey. The Greek name Lamia might
ultimately derive from Akkadian Lamashtu. Although Isa 34 contains the
only biblical reference to Lilith, she occurs fairly often in Jewish
and Christian scriptures (KREBS 1975; BRIL 1984). In the Talmud she is
a demon with long hair and wings (Erub. 100b; Nid. 24b), and Shab.
151b warns all men not to sleep alone in a house lest Lilith will
overcome them. B. Bat. 73a makes her the daughter of Ahreman, the
opponent of Ohrmizd in the Zoroastrian religion. Well known is also
the legend of Lilith who was →Adam’s first wife but flew away from him
after a quarrel; since then she has been a danger to little children
and people have to protect themselves against her by means of amulets.
Solomon in his great wisdom also possessed might over demons and the
Liliths; in later Jewish legends one of the two wives from 1 Kgs
3:16–28 was identified with Lilith; so was the Queen of Sheba (1 Kgs
10). Such legends spread until the Middle Ages. In popular belief
Lilith became not only the grandmother of the →devil or the devil
himself, but also the arch-mother of witchcraft and witches.
Hutter, M. (1999). Lilith. In K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, & P. W. van der Horst (Eds.), Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible (2nd extensively rev. ed., pp. 520–521). Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans.
