WOMEN AT THE WINDOW IN THE BIBLE

First, let us consider the physical picture conjured up by windows in the ancient Near East. Kelso says, “Windows were rare on the ground floor, as the open door furnished plenty of light during the tear...First-floor windows would more likely face the interior courtyard than the street. Those facing the street would be latticed. Glass was not yet available for windows.”

In Jeremiah 22:14, Jehoiakim is criticized by the prophet for his elaborate palace. The king says, “I will build myself a spacious house with large upper rooms.” He plans to cut out windows for it, paneling them over with cedar, and painting them with vermilion.

Historically speaking, McCarter cites several pagan usages of the 'woman at the window' theme but concludes, “We cannot assume, however, that the motif of the woman at the window, which became a narrative convention in Hebrew literature, retained any cultic associations after being taken up by the biblical writers.”

In a recent article in 'Biblical Archaeology Review,' Lacy Papadakis discusses this image, which appears in about eighty ivory objects from the ancient Near East as well as in the Bible. Although many scholars feel that this image refers to a cult prostitute, she disagrees and says, “Those window scenes include stories of women of varying societal positions, but each woman experiences a shift in status or a transformation. The window functions in the story as a liminal place, that is, a point of transition, reflecting an interplay between life and death, danger and safety. These stories in the Hebrew Bible help elucidate the symbolism of the women in the window ivories but not through a focus on any one societal role. Instead, the meaning derives from the function of the women and the windows in these stories.”

She divides the stories into two types. The first she labels the “heroine in the window.” In these, “the woman intervenes as danger approaches, and the window bridges the threat of death and the pursuit of safety. The heroines represent opposite sides of society – a prostitute, Rahab, and a king's daughter. Michal. The immediate danger specifically targets the men. The women risk their safety and devise lies to protect the men. Papadakis' second category of story is called “seeing death.” These include passages such as Judges 5:24-30; II Kings 9:30-37; II Samuel 6:16; and Ecclesiastes 12:3.

And the general association of windows with death and desolation appears elsewhere in the OT:

    II Kings 1 – King Ahaziah falls through the lattice (i.e. window) in his upper chamber in Samaria and eventually dies from his injuries.

    Jeremiah 9:21 – “Death has come up into our windows, it has entered our palaces.”

    Joel 2:9 – Locust “climb up into houses, they enter through the windows like a thief.”

    Zephaniah 2:14 – In describing the desolation of Nineveh, the prophet conjures up the following images: “the owl shall hoot at the window, the raven croak on the threshold.”

But in fact there is a third, and more joyous, major theme in which a woman at a window figures. It could be labeled “looking for one's love.” Here is what two commentators say regarding that motif:

    McCarter: “The woman in the window is the bride or paramour (Prov 7:6 [LXX]; cf. II Kings 9:30) watching for her lover's arrival, but she is also the bride or mother watching anxiously for her beloved's return from battle or danger, as in Judg 5:28...Thus the motif belongs with the joyous side of the tradition of ancient Near Eastern love poetry, in which the bride-sister stands waiting in her chamber for her lover's entrance (Cant 2:9), but also with the anxious or grievous side of the same tradition (Cant 3:1-3), in which the bride or mother stands waiting, sometimes in vain, for a young man who has disappeared or perished. As for the present passage [II Samuel 6] it seems to me at least as likely that the dark side of this tradition suggested the use of the woman-in-the-window motif to the writer as that the light side did.”

    And The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery covers the theme in an even more thorough manner, so I will quote it in some detail: “As openings in houses from which people see out and view the world, windows connote knowledge and vision as well as an avenue of contact with the world beyond one's house...The moment of waiting is captured by a familiar motif of the woman at the window, looking out for the return of her man (Judg 5:28; 2 Kings 9:30; 2 Sam 6:12)...going out to meet the triumphant warriors as they return...In other passages, looking out of windows implies eagerness to receive an expected piece of news from the outside world...Windows that offer a way of escape from danger represent God's deliverance of his people...Such stories reveal how completely those who escape must depend on help from another...elsewhere movement out of a window is a picture of death.”

Since some of the stories with this theme exhibit more than one of these three motifs, I will discuss them in the order in which they appear in the Bible:

Joshua 2:15

Here is one of the clearest examples of a woman (Rahab in this case) saving someone from disaster by helping them out a window to safety outside, and it will have echoes later in I Samuel 19:12 and Acts 9:23. And although her valiant action will preserve the lives of the Jewish spies and her whole family, it also portends death for all others in the city of Jericho.

Judges 5:24-30

I have discussed the literary characteristics of Judges 4-5 in another post, and this passage concludes the story of a defeated general who has been killed by a single woman. At that point, the action abruptly shifts to the general's mother anxiously waiting at the window for her son's return, which will never occur. Bruce says, “The closing scene of the song is unforgettably vivid and moving...in spite of the ladies' reassuring confidence, her forebodings will not be stilled.”

Thus, this passage combines two of the common themes associated with women at a window – looking expectantly for her loved one to return and seeing only death instead.

I Samuel 19:12

At this point early in the marriage of Saul's daughter Michal to David, she helps him escape her father's wrath by lowering him out a window. “In Josh 2:15, where Rahab helps Joshua's spies make a similar escape, it is explained that the house was built into the city wall, so that someone leaving the house through the window would escape detection by anyone within the city walls. Perhaps, since David does not encounter Saul's guards outside, we are to assume that the same is true here. Cf. Also II Cor 11:32-33.” (McCarter)

II Samuel 6:16-23

“For the motif of 'the woman at the window,' see Judg. 5:28 and 2 K. 9:30 as well as ivory plaques from Samaria, Arslan Tash, Nimrud, and Khorsabad. The motif became a narrative convention in Hebrew literature for depicting a woman who is waiting for someone either with joyous expectation or anxious concern.” (Tsumura)

II Samuel 20:16 // I Chronicles 15:29

Michal sees David joyously celebrating the bringing of the ark to Jerusalem and despises him for his abandoned enthusiasm. This results in her never having a child “to the day of her death.” Thus, the story begins as one in which a woman looks forward to her love's return but instead ends as she is rejected by him for her attitude, effectively bringing the line of Saul to an end. So we see that Michal figures as the woman in the window in two separate, and quite different, episodes.

II Kings 9:30-37

In this story, Queen Jezebel paints her eyes and adorns her head and looks out the window as Jehu approaches. He instructs her eunuchs to throw her out the window to her death. Provan interprets her actions as such: “Jezebel is discovered at a window, fully adorned as a prostitute (cf. Jer 4:30; Ezek. 23:40).” Douglas has a slightly different take on Jezebel: “When Jehoram was killed by Jehu she attired herself regally (2 Ki. Ix 30), and awaited him. She mocked Jehu and went to her fate with courage and dignity.”

In either case, she clearly views her own death as she looks out her window.

Proverbs 7:6

Waltke explains that the Septuagint (LXX) version of this verse reads “For standing at the window of her house, through the opening she looked down” in place of “For standing at the window of my house, through the window I looked down,” thus making the unfaithful wife the one doing both the looking and calling to the gullible youth. The influential scholar Albright is one of the commentators who prefers the LXX reading and connects it with the “women-in-the-window” motif.

McKane notes that Bostrom also goes with LXX, but McKane sees problems with this view and alternatively suggests that the narrator is Lady Wisdom: “Is it, then, Wisdom portrayed as a queen who looks out of the window in Proverbs 7:6? If so, it would appear that a motif associated with Astarte (as queen of fertility) and her devotees has been transferred to Wisdom.” Of course, one does not need to posit a pagan connection for his question to be a pertinent one.

As a personal aside, when I was much younger I was attending a conference in New Orleans and staying in the French Quarter. As I was returning to my room one day walking through one of the less frequented streets, I heard a woman from an upper story window propositioning me with the help of a microphone and speaker. Apparently the motif continues today.

Ecclesiastes 12:3

This verse is sometimes included as an example of the woman-in-the-window theme. For example, Papadakis says, “Ecclesiastes 12:3 mentions nondescript women who “look through the windows and 'see dimly,' reflecting the transitory nature of life.” I have discussed Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 in some detail in a recent post, but here are some additional points related to the motif in question:

“Verses 2-5 include a series of metaphors that reveal that the signs forewarning old age are no longer mere warnings; they have become realities...Most commentators agree that 'those who look through windows' is a reference to the women of the household who, according to Middle Eastern custom were not allowed to mingle with the men in the business of the household and so they peered through the lattice-work of the house. That they 'grow dim' means either (a) that others outside the house have a more difficult time seeing them in the windows because they go to the windows no more, (b) that it has become dark, or (c) that they themselves have a harder time seeing, for their eyes have lost their brilliance. In each case, the women are becoming progressively isolated from the outside world, shut off from whatever joys and pleasures they once knew.” (B.C Davis)

Whether or not death has already occurred in the house, and the point is debated, it is certainly predicted to occur soon.

Song of Songs 2:9

The heroine spies her lover outside and exclaims, “Look, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice.”

Gledhill: “The NIV captures well the girl's thrill and excitement as she hears her lover approaching. Her sense of anticipation is almost tangible.” And Longman says, “He does not cross the threshold of her domicile...and stares through her window. He...beckons his beloved to join him. The fact that he stands quietly and looks intently after such agitated movement also evokes a mood of romantic tension.”

Despite the generally joyous nature of this verse, Gregory, in his discussion of various allegorical interpretations of Song, notes this reference “to looking through windows and lattices, often was placed in the context of the Destroyer passing through on the night of the tenth plague.” And Marvin Pope quotes even more fanciful allegorical applications of “window” in this verse by various early Christian writers.

Acts 9:23 // II Corinthians 9:23-25

Turning to the NT, one can note Papadakis' two themes involving windows recurring in the life of Paul, although not specifically associated with women. The first is the episode in which he needed to be lowered out a window in the wall of a city to escape those out to capture him. Hughes says that “it was an event which emphasized, at the beginning of his ministry, his own abject weakness and frailty...The man who experienced the ineffable 'ascent' even to the third heaven was the same man who had experienced the undistinguished 'descent' from a window in the Damascus wall.”

R.P. Martin lists several scholars who have noted the parallels with Rahab's saving the spies in Joshua 2:15-18 and then comments, “Unlike the proud vainglory of military prowess, his apostolic career opened on the note of humiliation and disgrace.” Furnish additionally cites David's escape out a window in I Samuel 19:12 as a similar situation.

Acts 20:7-12

In this episode, a boy named Eutychus is listening to a long talk by Paul while sitting in an upper story window when he falls out to his certain death. However, Paul brings him back to life. This is an even dimmer echo of the “woman in the window” motif, but I thought I would mention it since it does serve to confirm the common association of windows with impending doom. Also, as in Acts 9:23 it is vaguely humorous, this time because it does not exactly speak well for Paul's preaching style.