While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
While the bridegroom tarried. So in Matthew 24:48, "My Lord delayeth His coming;" and so Peter says sublimely of the ascended Saviour, "Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things" (Acts 3:21, and compare Luke 19:11-12). Christ "tarries," among other reasons, to try the faith and patience of His people.
They all slumbered and slept - the wise as well as the foolish. The word "slumbered" х enustaxan (G3573)] signifies, simply, 'nodded,' or, 'became drowsy;' while the word "slept" х ekatheudon (G2518)] is the usual word for 'lying down to sleep;' denoting two stages of spiritual declension-first, that half-in-voluntary lethargy or drowsiness which is apt to steal over one who falls into inactivity; and then a conscious, deliberate yielding to it, after a little vain resistance. Such was the state alike of the wise and the foolish virgins, even until the cry of the Bridegroom's approach awoke them. So likewise in the parable of the Importunate Widow: "When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8).