Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

28 Through the window there looks out and cries aloud The mother of Sisera, through the lattice work, Why does his chariot delay its coming? Why tarry the steps of his team? 29 The wise of her princesses reply: - But she repeats her words to herself - 30 Surely they are finding and sharing booty: A maiden, two maidens to the head of a man, Booty of variegated cloths for Sisera: Booty of variegated cloths, garments worked in divers colours, A variegated cloth, two garments worked in divers colours for his neck as booty. Sisera's mother looks out with impatience for the return of her son, and cries aloud out of the window, Why is he never coming?-foreboding the disastrous result of the war. תּיבּב, ἁπ. λεγ., signifies to cry; in Aramaean it is used for הריע and רנּן, to denote a loud joyful cry; here it evidently signifies a loud cry of anxiety. For the repeated question, Why does his chariot delay its coming? is evidently expressive of anxiety and alarm. The form אחרוּ, perf. Piel for אחרוּ, may be attributed to the influence of the aleph, which favours the seghol sound, like יחמוּ in Gen 30:39. The combination of מרכּבותיו פּעמי, "steps of his chariots," cannot be explained, as it is by Bertheau, on the ground that the word פעמי, as a general expression for intermittent movement, might also be applied to the jerking of the wheels in rolling, but simply on the supposition that מרכּבות, as a synonym for רכב, is used for the horses yoked to the chariot in the sense of team, like רכב in Sa2 8:4; Sa2 10:18, etc.