Judges 5:28

28 "Sisera's mother looked out through the window. She looked through the curtains and cried out, 'Why is Sisera's chariot so late in coming? Why are sounds of his chariots' horses delayed?'

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 Jael reached out and took the tent peg. Her right hand reached for the workman's hammer. She crushed and pierced the side of his head!
27 At Jael's feet he sank. He fell, and he lay there. At her feet he sank. He fell. Where Sisera sank, there he fell, dead!
28 "Sisera's mother looked out through the window. She looked through the curtains and cried out, 'Why is Sisera's chariot so late in coming? Why are sounds of his chariots' horses delayed?'
29 The wisest of her servant ladies answer her, and Sisera's mother says to herself,
30 'Surely they are robbing the people they defeated! Surely they are dividing those things among themselves! Each soldier is given a girl or two. Maybe Sisera is taking pieces of dyed cloth. Maybe they are even taking pieces of dyed, embroidered cloth for the necks of the victors!'
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.