Psalms 68:12

Kings of armies did flee apace. — Better, Kings of armies flee, flee. This and the two next verses wear the air of being a fragment of those ancient battle-songs sung by the women after the defeat of the foe. The fact that they have thus been torn from their original context accounts for the great obscurity which hangs over them.

And she that tarried... — i.e., the woman keeping the house; so the Hebrew. (Comp. Judges 5:24, “Women of the tent;” and the fond anticipations of Sisera’s mother, Psalms 68:29.) So the Greeks called the mistress of the house οὶκουρός. (Eur. Herc. Fur. 45.)

Though this sense thus gives a general description of war, and the women waiting eagerly for the victorious home-coming is a picture true to life, yet the next verse indicates that we must suppose a latent reference to some tribe or party who shirked the dangers of battle, and played the part of the stay-at-home.