Song of Solomon 1:5

THE SHULAMITE RESPONDS TO CONTEMPTUOUS CRITICISM

"I am black but comely,

O ye daughters of Jerusalem,

As the tents of Kedar,

As the curtains of Solomon.

Look not upon me, because I am swarthy,

Because the sun hath scorched me.

My mother's sons were incensed against me:

They made me keeper of the vineyards;

But mine own vineyard have I not kept.

Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth,

Where thou feedest thy flock,

Where thou makest it to rest at noon;

For why should I be as one that is veiled

Beside the flocks of thy companions?"

This paragraph tells us the identity of the Shulamite's true love. He is a shepherd, not the king of Israel. No stretch of imagination can make a shepherd out of Solomon. Furthermore, the hostility and cruelty of the harem appear here. "The newcomer is subjected to their contemptuous, jealous looks."[10]

"I am black but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem" (Song of Solomon 1:5). That the Shulamite here apologizes for her dark sun-tan indicates that the pale, hot-house victims of the harem had heaped their scorn and criticism upon her.

These words have led some to suppose that the Shulamite was a Negro; "But the parallel line tells us plainly the meaning, `I am swarthy'; therefore, she was apologizing for her dark sun-tan."[11] The balance of the paragraph explains how the sun-tan came about. Her brothers had compelled her to work outdoors. Thus she could not keep her "own vineyard." What did she mean by that?

"My own vineyard have I not kept" (Song of Solomon 1:6). Bunn interpreted this to mean that, "The Shulamite had not kept her own chastity."[12] Cook saw it as a reference to, "the care and cultivation of her own beauty."[13] Pope affirmed that, "The reference is to the maiden's body, especially her sexual parts."[14] Cook's opinion is by far the preferable understanding of it. To accept the other views would mean that the Shulamite here confessed her status either as an adulteress or as a prostitute.

"Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest thy flock?" (Song of Solomon 1:7). If this text has any meaning at all, it means that the Shulamite's true lover was a shepherd. Only by the abuse of figurative language can this be applied to Solomon. The implication of this is that the absent lover was feeding his flock in some place unknown to the Shulamite. Solomon was not absent; he was not feeding a flock, and his place was well known to everyone in Jerusalem. Solomon is not in this at all.