Her wise ladies. — Literally, the wise of her princesses. There is unconcealed scorn in this, showing that the wisest were most utterly mistaken. Their “wisdom” is the seductive flattery of delusive hopes.
Answered her. — The verb is in the singular, implying that one spoke after another. The Vulgate renders it. “One of his wives, wiser than the rest, answered.”
Yea, she returned answer to herself. — The meaning of the clause is very uncertain. It may be, “yea, she repeats their answer to herself,” accepting their flattering surmises; or, on the contrary, “but she repeats her words to herself,” entirely unconsoled; or, again — but this is less likely — “yea, she retracted her own (anxious) words.” The anxious foreboding or the inextinguishable hope would be equally true to nature, according to the temperament of the Canaanite princess.