MEN AT THE WINDOW IN THE BIBLE

This is a companion essay to my earlier post titled “Women at the Window in the Bible” in which the various biblical occurrences of this theme appear to be associated with either them waiting for their lover's appearance or appear in the context of approaching danger or death. But in several of these passages, a man is also at the window, and so they additionally fit the theme of a man at the window. Papadakis categorizes the passages with men at a window in the same two-fold way, but adds the consideration that for these situations the concept of “accessibility or passability” also may apply.

Passages involving (possible) sexual encounters

Genesis 26:8 – King Abimelech looks through his window to see Isaac fondling Rebekah, his wife whom he had misled the king into thinking was only his sister. Even this viewing could have had dire consequences for Isaac, but God was behind it so that Isaac got by with only a tongue-lashing.

Proverbs 7:6-9 – The author (presumably male) looks out his window and views a loose woman seducing a young man from her window. Here we have both a man and woman at their windows. And although the context is a sexual one, there is also the potential for physical or spiritual death involved, as verses 22-23 point out.

Song of Songs 2:9 – This is another example of both a man and woman at the window. The woman is inside her house looking out for the approach of her lover. But at the same time, he is outside looking in the same window for her. Here we have the potential of a sexual encounter, but one separated by a barrier.

Passages involving (possible) death or danger

In these cases, the idea of “passability” comes into play since there is generally movement out of the window in order to avoid danger.

Genesis 8:6 – Noah opens a window and sends out a bird to see if it will soon be safe to venture outside the ark because the water had begun receding or whether it is still too hazardous outside.

Joshua 2:15 – Rahab lets the Jewish spies out from her window so that they can avoid capture. In this case, both a woman and men appear at a window.

I Samuel 19:11 – This is a similar case in which a woman, Michal, lets her husband David out of a window to avoid King Saul from capturing him.

Acts 9:25; II Corinthians 11:33 – Turning to the New Testament, Paul escapes capture from some Jews who are pursuing him when some disciples, presumably male, lower him out of a window so that he can exit the walled city of Damascus safely.

II Kings 9 – In a sort of twist to this same theme, Queen Jezebel appears at the window of her palace and taunts her pursuer Jehu who is outside. But Jehu calls for the queen's guards inside the palace to throw her out the window to her death and they obey. So again, we have both a women and men at the window.

II Kings 1 – In this case it is a king, Ahaziah to be precise, who exits an upper window during a fall. He pleads with Elijah to save him, but the prophet refuses and the king eventually dies of his wounds.

Acts 20:9 – The New Testament parallel to this event (to a certain extent) appears when a sleepy young man named Eutychus is perched in the window sill of an upper story and doses off during Paul's long sermon. Eutychus falls to his (probable) death on the street below. But unlike Elijah, Paul revives him in what appears to be a real miracle.

II Kings 13:17 – This presents us with another palace scene between a prophet (Elisha) and a different king of Israel. The king is subjected to a test by being told to open his window and shoot arrows out of it. When the king only shoots a few of these symbolic arrows, he is informed that because he did not shoot more, he will not prevail over his enemy for some time to come. We have here the themes of a man at the window, something passing out of the window, and the possibility of continued danger all combined together.

Daniel 3 – If we stretch a point more than a little, then there is another instance which may be a bit similar. King Nebuchadnezzar has ordered the three Jewish captives to be thrown into a roaring furnace for disobeying his edict. But when he peers into the furnace (through a door, not a window), he sees that they are well and alive and tells them to come out. So we have another escape from death through an opening.

Daniel 6:10 – In a similar case of disobedience to a foreign king's edict, the prophet prays in his room with his window blinds open. A.-J. Levine asks whether he might perhaps purposely be doing this in order to taunt the king by his disobedience. In any case, Daniel's enemies barge in and arrest him, but of course he escapes punishment just as his three friends had.

Going even further afield in pursuing this biblical theme, we come to those instances in which the gender of the one at the window is not specified, and in some examples it is not even a human being. All that remains is some sort of being or beings at the window and the concept of danger.

In the Ecclesiastes 12 poem regarding old age and approaching death, we read (v. 3): “Those who look through the windows [referring to eyes] look dimly.”

Isaiah predicts the time when there will be a return to Jerusalem from a cruel life in exile. He expresses it poetically as “doves who fly to their windows (60:8).”

Joel 2:9 warns of plague in which hordes of locust will come into people's houses through the windows.

Another prophet, Zephaniah, talks of utter destruction to a city leaving only deserted buildings with desert owls hooting at the windows (2:14).

Finally, we have those references to the figurative “windows of heaven” which God can either open or close, with drastic implications in either case regarding the life or death of those on earth. First God opens them to flood the earth and destroy almost all its inhabitants (Genesis 7:11). But then he closes the floodgates in order that those in the ark can exit it (Genesis 8:2).

II Kings 7 describes the time when Samaria has been under a prolonged siege and are almost starved out. But Elisha predicts that soon normal trade will resume with the outside world and food will become plentiful again. The skeptical “ captain on whose hand the king leaned” says, “Even if the LORD were to make windows in the sky, could such a thing happen?” and is punished with death for his unbelief once the siege is lifted as predicted. Cogan and Tadmor compare this imagery to that in Genesis 7:11, 8:2; and Malachi 3:10. That last-mentioned passage talks of a future time when God will open the windows of heaven and pour down blessings on the people.

The last scripture I wish to mention is Isaiah 24:18. Oswalt comments, “The opening image is drawn from Gen. 7:11, where the windows of heaven opened to release a terrific weight of water upon the earth to wash it clean of its transgression...the poet's primary purpose is not to predict another flood, but...to talk about the destruction of normalcy both above and below.”