The mother of Sisera looked out, &c.— Dr. Lowth produces this passage as a most beautiful example of the prosopopoeia: "We have, in the first place," says he, "the most striking image of maternal solicitude, and of a mind divided between hope and fear, both in the behaviour and words of Sisera's mother:
The mother of Sisera looked out at a window; She cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the wheels of his chariots?
Immediately, impatient of delay, she prevents the comfort of her companions, elate in mind, and bursting forth into female levity and jactation, impotent to hope for any thing, and drunk with her good fortune Her wise ladies earnestly answered her, Yea, she immediately returned answer to herself; Have they not sped? Have they not divided the spoil?
We see how consonant to the person speaking is every idea, every word. She dwells not upon the slaughter of the enemies, the number of the captives, the valour and great exploits of the victor, but (burning with the female love of spoils) on those things rather which captivate the light mind of the vainest woman, damsels, gold, garments. Nor does she dwell upon them only; but she repeats, she accumulates, she augments every thing. She seems, as it were, to handle the spoils, dwelling as she does upon every particular:
Have they not sped? have they not divided the prey? A damsel, yea, two damsels to every man; To Sisera a prey of divers colours, A prey of divers colours, of needlework, Finely coloured, of needlework on both sides, A spoil for adorning the neck?
To enhance the beauty of this passage, there is, in the poetic conformation of the sentences, an admirable neatness; in the diction, great force, splendor, accuracy; in the very redundance of the repetitions, the utmost brevity: and, lastly, the most striking disappointment of the woman's hope, tacitly insinuated by that sudden and unexpected apostrophe,
So let all thine enemies perish, O JEHOVAH! is expressed more fully and strongly by this silence, than could have been painted by any colouring of words." See Dr. Lowth's 13th Praelection, Proverbs 4:18-19 and the note on Joshua 7:21. We cannot do better than conclude this chapter with the words of Pelican: "Let a Homer or Virgil go and compare his poetry, if he be able, with the song of this woman; and, if there be any one who excels in eloquence and learning, let him celebrate the praises and learning of this panegyrick more copiously than I am able."