Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
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 world "slumbered" signifies, simply, "nodded," or, "became drowsy"; while the world "slept" is the usual word for lying down to sleep, denoting two stages of spiritual declension—first, that half-involuntary 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 till 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).
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Matthew 25:5:
Song of Solomon 5:2
Isaiah 55:6
Matthew 25:1
Ephesians 5:14
Ephesians 5:31
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