A window

(Judg. 5:28). Windows in the houses of the ancient Hebrews served as openings for the admission of light and air. Since glass was not yet in use, a window was protected by a lattice, which could be opened or closed at will. In Eastern houses windows for the most part open onto the inner courtyard, rather than onto the outer street, and this arrangement is probably designed to avoid the dust of the narrow Eastern streets. On the front of a house a small balcony, or portico, was sometimes built, carefully protected by lattices and sometimes opened for some festive occasion.

It was from just such a window that Jezebel was thrown down and trampled underfoot, as she looked out upon the triumphant procession of Jehu (2 Kings 9:30). Noah’s ark was furnished with an opening in the form of a window (Gen. 6:16, 8:6). In Daniel’s house in Babylon the windows were turned toward Jerusalem: “his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime” (Dan. 6:10). Sometimes the word “window” is used in a figurative sense, in the meaning of the word—the windows of heaven (Mal. 3:10, Gen. 7:11).