Alukah
Alukah, the insatiable leech of Proverbs 30:15
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Biblical Origins of the Alukah
The Alukah appears a single time in the Hebrew Bible, in Proverbs 30:15: «The leech has two daughters that say: give me, give me». The verse opens a series of numerical sentences about the insatiable, and from there proceeds all its symbolic load: that which is never satisfied, that which only knows how to ask. The Hebrew word alukah designates literally the leech, but its rarity in the text and the mention of those two anonymous daughters opened the door to very ancient demonological readings. The commentators discussed during centuries what those daughters were: for some, the Sheol and the sterile womb; for others, two hungry demonesses. On that interpretive gap, the later Jewish tradition constructed the Alukah as creature and not as animal.
Nature and powers of the Alukah
In medieval Jewish folklore, the Alukah ceases to be a water worm to become a female demon that feeds on blood. It is attributed the ability to take the form of a nocturnal bird to enter the houses and to abandon its body while the victim sleeps, draining it little by little until consuming it. Its presence explains the causeless exhaustion, the paleness and the slow deaths that the medicine of the time did not know how to name. The rabbinic texts associate it with ritual impurity and with desire that does not stop, and prescribe against it the same remedies as against the nocturnal spirits: written divine names, amulets and vigilance over the newborns. Its kinship with Lilith is of nature, not always of blood: they share the hunger and the night.
The Alukah in the vampire lineage
The Alukah occupies a precise place in the cultural genealogy of the vampire: it is the biblical link, the one that allows the thirst for blood to enter the imaginary of the three religions of the Book with scriptural backing. Christian demonologists cited it together with the Greek lamia and the Roman striga as proofs that vampirism was ancient and universal, and that chain of authorities ended up leading to the treatises on vampires of the eighteenth century and, from there, to the literature of terror. It is advisable to specify that this kinship is of tradition, not of lineage: the Alukah does not engender the Romanian strigoi nor the Slavic upyr, but it does form part of the library from which those who described them drank.
Also known as
Relics
🏺 Horse-leech
🏺 Proverbs 30:15
Symbology
Element
Blood
Number
2
Color
Red
Animals
Leech, Night Eagle
Sigils:
🏷️ Traits
Powers
Weaknesses
Behavioral
Resistances
🗺️In the Atlas
Travel the beings’ world of origin and the cosmos of their dimensions.
📜 Mythologies
Esoteric and Kabbalistic traditions within Judaism, encompassing Merkabah mysticism from the Talmudic era, 13th-century Zoharic Kabbalah, 16th-century Lurianic Kabbalah, the 18th-century Hasidic movement, and various meditative, contemplative, and visionary practices aimed at ascending through spiritual worlds, invoking divine names, and achieving mystical union with the divine while unraveling the secrets of the creative universe.
Sources
Zohar, Jewish Kabbalistic Text
Moses de León (attributed) · 1280
The Zohar (13th century) links Alukah to Lilith and blood demons in Jewish mysticism, expanding its interpretation as a blood-sucking spirit.
Babylonian Talmud
Several rabbis · ca. 500 CE
Jewish rabbinic text compiled ca. 500 CE, mentions Bar Kokhba in tractates like Sanhedrin 93b as false Messiah, with discussions on Akiva's support.
Tanakh - Proverbs 30:15
Ancient Hebrew Tradition · 6th cent. BC
Hebrew Bible, Proverbs 30:15, describes Alukah as a leech with two greedy daughters, basis for its demonic interpretation.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the Alukah appear in the Bible?
In a single verse: Proverbs 30:15, «the leech has two daughters who say: give, give». It is its only mention in the Hebrew Bible, and from that brevity everything else is born: the text does not explain who those daughters are, and on that gap the later tradition built the creature.
What do the two daughters of the leech symbolize?
The verse presents them as an example of what never is sated. The Jewish commentators interpreted them in different ways: for some they are the Seol and the sterile womb, two mouths that always ask; for others, two hungry demonesses. That second reading is the one that pushed the Alukah from the animal kingdom to the demonological.
What relationship does the Alukah have with Lilith?
They share occupation more than blood: both are female figures that attack at night, drain the life of the sleepers and threaten the newborns. Medieval Jewish folklore brought them closer until making the Alukah a form or a daughter of Lilith, although the biblical texts do not establish any link between them.
Is the Alukah the ancestor of the European vampire?
Not in a literal sense, but yes in that of the library. Christian demonologists cited it alongside the Greek lamia and the Roman striga to demonstrate that vampirism was ancient and was in the Scriptures, and that chain of authorities reaches up to the treatises on vampires of the eighteenth century. It is the biblical link of a cultural genealogy, not a blood ancestor.
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