Sisera’s mother voices her mounting anxiety through repeated questions rather than direct statements of fear, allowing Deborah’s song to expose the ironic tragedy of a mother’s hope that will never be fulfilled. The interrogative form preserves the dramatic tension of her waiting while readers already know Sisera lies dead.

Sisera’s attendants respond with reassurances that his delay stems from dividing abundant spoils, including dyed garments and captured women for every man (Judges 5:29-30). They offer confident explanations to calm her fears, unaware that Sisera already lies dead.

This haunting question captures a mother’s growing dread as she strains to hear her son’s returning chariot. The Hebrew verb boshesh (to delay or tarry) appears twice, emphasizing the agonizing passage of time. Deborah structures this as questions rather than statements to heighten the dramatic irony, readers know Sisera lies dead while his mother still hopes, peering through the lattice for hoofbeats that will never come. The interrogative form preserves the emotional intensity of her vigil while allowing the audience to feel the tragic gap between her expectations and reality. Theologically, this moment demonstrates divine justice’s completeness: the enemy commander who terrorized Israel for twenty years will not even receive burial from his mother, as she waits in vain for plunder that includes Israelite women, unaware that her son fell to a woman’s tent peg in fulfillment of prophetic word.