Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(wind-eye). In primitive Oriental houses the windows were simply openings upon the inner or court side of houses. But on the street or public side there were frequently latticed projections both for ventilation and sitting purposes (2 Kings 9:30; Judg. 5:28); probably the casements of Prov. 7:6; Song of Sol. 2:9).
Concise Bible Dictionary:
Tel Aviv
There are several Hebrew words so translated. Windows were openings to admit light and for ventilation; not glazed, but furnished with latticed work, through which persons could, though themselves unobserved, see what was passing outside. Some had shutters attached. There was a window in the ark Noah built, and windows in the temple; and many are to be made in the temple described by Ezekiel (Gen. 6:16; Gen. 8:6; 1 Kings 7:4-5; Ezek. 40:16-36).
Latticework Window Screen (Mashrabiyya)
In the East windows were usually made to open horizontally, which explains how a person sitting in a window could fall out (Acts 20:9). The passage in Isaiah 54:12, “I will make thy windows of agates,” is better translated, “I will make thy battlements, or pinnacles, of rubies.” At the flood the expression the “windows of heaven” is in the sense of the “floodgates,” as in the margin (Gen. 7:11).
From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Judges 5:28. The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice.
The walls of Oriental houses present but few windows to the street, and these are high up from the ground. They very seldom have glass in them, but are made of lattice-work, which is arranged for coolness, and also to give the inmates an opportunity of seeing without being seen. These windows are sometimes thrown out from the wall like our bay-windows, and thus afford a good opportunity of seeing what is going on in the street below. They are not hung like our ordinary sashes, but open and shut like doors. The window spoken of in the text was evidently on the street side of the house. So also was the window from which Michal saw David (2 Sam. 6:16), the window from which Joash shot the arrows (2 Kings 13:17); the window spoken of in Proverbs 7:6 and in Song of Solomon 2:9; and probably the windows which Daniel opened when he prayed (Dan. 6:10). The window from which Jezebel was hurled may have opened into the street or into the court (2 Kings 9:30-33), so may also the window from which Eutychus fell (Acts 20:9).
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