Judges 5:28

28 His mother beheld by a window, and yelled (out); and she spake from the solar, Why tarrieth his chariot to come again? Why tarry the feet of his four-horsed carts?

Judges 5:28 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 5:28

The mother of Sisera looked out at a window
Which perhaps looked towards the high road, in which she expected Sisera to return in his chariot with his victorious army; and she was looking out for him, not through fear of any ill that had befallen him, or suspicion of misfortunte, but through impatience to see him in triumph return, wreathed with laurels:

and cried through the lattice;
which is but another word for a window, which was not of glass, that being of a later invention, but made in lattice form, in a sort of network, full of little holes to let in air and light, and look out at; here she stood and cried with a very loud uneasy tone; the word signifies a sort of a groaning howling noise, discovering impatience and uneasiness; and so the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions render it, "she howled"; saying in a whining way,

why is his chariot so long in coming?
she did not doubt at all of victory, and concluded it would soon be obtained, and there would be very little trouble and difficulty in getting it, and therefore wondered his chariot was not in sight:

why tarry the wheels of his chariots?
the nine hundred he took with him, of the return of which she made no doubt, only was uneasy until they appeared, that she might be delighted with the glory of the triumph; the Targum is,

``why are the runners hindered, who should bring me a letter of the victories?''

Judges 5:28 In-Context

26 She put the left hand to the nail, and her right hand to the smith's hammer; and she smote Sisera, and sought in his head a place of wound, and she pierced strongly his temple. (Then she put a tent peg in her left hand, and the smith's hammer in her right hand; and she sought a place on his head for the wound, and then she struck down Sisera, when she strongly pierced his temple.)
27 He felled betwixt her feet, (and) he failed, and died; he was weltered before her feet, and he lay without life, and wretchedful.
28 His mother beheld by a window, and yelled (out); and she spake from the solar, Why tarrieth his chariot to come again? Why tarry the feet of his four-horsed carts?
29 One wiser than [the] other wives of him answered these words to the mother of her husband,
30 In hap now he parteth spoils, and the fairest of women is chosen to him; clothes of diverse colours be given to Sisera into prey, and diverse array of household is gathered to adorn necks. (Perhaps now he parteth the spoils, and the fairest of the women be chosen for him; yea, clothes of diverse colours be given to Sisera for prey, and a diverse array of things be gathered to adorn the victor's neck.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.