Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on Song of Solomon 1:5
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
After this choral song, Shulamith, who has listened to the singers not without being examined by their inquisitive glances as a strange guest not of equal rank with them, now speaks: 5 Black am I, yet comely, ye daughters of Jerusalem, As the tents of Kedar, as the hangings of Solomon. From this, that she addresses the ladies of the palace as "daughters of Jerusalem" (Kerı̂ ירושׁלים, a du. fractus; like עפרין for עפרון, Ch2 13:19), it is to be concluded that she, although now in Jerusalem, came from a different place. She is, as will afterwards appear, from Lower Galilee; - and it may be remarked, in the interest of the mystical interpretation, that the church, and particularly her first congregations, according to the prophecy, was also Galilean, for Nazareth and Capernaum are their original seats; - and if Shulamith is a poetico-mystical Mashal or emblem, then she represents the synagogue one day to enter into the fellowship of Solomon - i.e., of the son of David, and the daughters of Jerusalem, i.e., the congregation already believing on the Messiah. Yet we confine ourselves to the nearest sense, in which Solomon relates a self-experience. Shulamith, the lightly esteemed, cannot boast that she is so ruddy and fair of countenance as they who have just sung how pleasant it is to be beloved by this king; but yet she is not so devoid of beauty as not to venture to love and hope to be loved: "Black am I, yet comely." These words express humility without abjectness. She calls herself "black," although she is not so dark and unchangeably black as an "Ethiopian" ( Jer 13:23). The verb שׁחר has the general primary idea of growing dark, and signifies not necessarily soot-blackness (modern Arab. shuhwar, soot), but blackness more or less deep, as שׁחר, the name of the morning twilight, or rather the morning grey, shows; for (Arab.) saḥar (Note: After an improbable etymology of the Arab., from saḥar, to turn, to depart, "the departure of the night" (Lane). Magic appears also to be called sihar, as nigromantia (Mediaev. from nekromantia), the black art.) denotes the latter, as distinguished from (Arab.) fajr, the morning twilight (vid., under Isa 14:12; Isa 47:11). She speaks of herself as a Beduin who appears to herself as (Arab.) sawda, black, and calls (Note: The houri (damsel of paradise) is thus called ḥawaryyt, adj. relat. from ḥawra, from the black pupil of the eye in the centre of the white eyeball.) the inhabitants of the town (Arab.) ḥawaryyat (cute candidas). The Vav we have translated "yet" ("yet comely"); it connects the opposite, which exists along with the blackness. נאוה is the fem. of the adj. נאוה = נאוה = נאוי, which is also formed by means of the doubling of the third stem-letter of נאה = נאו, נאי (to bend forward, to aim; to be corresponding to the aim, conformable, becoming, beautiful), e.g., like רענן, to be full of sap, green. Both comparisons run parallel to nigra et bella; she compares on the one hand the tents of Kedar, and on the other the tapestry of Solomon. אהל signifies originally, in general, the dwelling-place, as בּית the place where one spends the night; these two words interchange: ohel is the house of the nomad, and baith is the tent of him who is settled. קדר (with the Tsere, probably from (Arab.) ḳadar, to have ability, be powerful, though of after the Heb. manner, as Theodoret explains and Symm. also translates: σκοτασμός, from (Heb.) Kadar, atrum esse) is the name of a tribe of North. Arab. Ishm…
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