[6]. Disdain me not. In repelling these disdainful looks the Shulamite states first that her dark complexion is adventitious, being merely sun-burnt, and as Rashi remarks, נוח להתלבן כשיעמוד בצל, will be white again under the protection of the shade: and secondly, how she came to be so much exposed to the sun, and this she ascribes to the anger of her brothers. This anger, however, as it appears from ii. 8–17, was merely a fraternal solicitude for her reputation, which induced them to give her employment in the vineyards, in order to prevent her meeting her beloved in the field. אַל תִּרְאוּנִי (i.q. אַל תִּרְאֲֽינָה אֹתִי, Ewald, § 248), [[134]]is well explained by the Chald., Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Rashbam, Immanuel, &c., אלֹ תבזוני, do not disdain me. רָאָה, to see, is also used for looking down upon any one, Job. xli. 26. Instead of תִּרְאֻנִי, four of Kennicott’s MSS., two of De Rossi’s, and two more, originally read תיראוני, fear me not, which is adopted by Döderlein; but the reading of the received text is both more supported, and suits the connexion better; for it can hardly be possible that the damsel was actually so black as to inspire terror; or that the court ladies were so highly nervous as to be so easily frightened. Hodgson’s rendering, mind me not, is incorrect. The ש in שֶׁאֲנִי, stands for אֲשֶׁר, the א being rejected by aphaeresis, and the ר assimilated; Gesen. § 36. שְׁחַרְחֹר, blackish; adjectives denoting colour have frequently the last two stem letters repeated to render them diminutives; as אֲדַמְדָּם, reddish, Lev. xiii. 19; יְרַקְרַק, greenish, Lev. xiii. 49. So Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Rashbam, Immanuel, Gesen. § 84. 23; Ewald, § 157 c. שָׁזָף, i.q. שָׁדַף, to scorch, to burn, Gen. xxiii. 17; xli. 6. So the Syriac, Aquila, Theodotion, Ewald, Gesenius, Meier, Hitzig, &c. The ז and ד frequently interchange, compare גָזַע and גָדַע, to cut down; and are even found to do so by the same inspired writer; compare נִדְעֲכוּ, Job. vi. 17, with נִזְעֲכוּ, xvii. 1. בְּנֵי אִמִּי, not step-brothers, (Houbigant, Ewald, Good,) who would not have such power over their sister, but poetically used for אַחַי, my brothers. Comp. Gen. xxvii. 20; Ps. l. 20; lxix. 9. נִחָרוּ is the Niphal of חָרַר, to burn, (comp. Ps. cii. 4; Gesen. § 6, 7, 8, Rem. 5; Ewald, § 140 a. § 193 c.), and not from חָרָה (Kimchi, Ibn Ezra, Immanuel, &c.) which would be נֶחֱרוּ, Is. xli. 11.
Though my own vineyard, &c. The word כַּרְמִי, is either taken to denote the Shulamite’s personal appearance, or to mean her beloved: and the phrase is explained, “Through the constant watch which my brothers made me keep over their vineyard, I could not take care of (כַּרְמִי) my complexion; or could not attend to (כַּרְמִי) my beloved.” But it is a hazardous mode of interpretation to take an expression in the same verse in an ordinary and in an extraordinary sense, which ought never to be done unless required by absolute necessity, which is not the case here. Dr. Good indeed escapes this inconsistency by assigning a spiritual meaning to כֶּרֶם, (viz. personal estate, one’s own person) in both clauses; and he submits that “the bride asserts that she had been compelled to neglect her own person, through the perpetual attention which was demanded of her by her brothers or sisters in decorating themselves, or in assisting in their concerns.” But apart from the unnecessary and unjustifiable deviation from the literal meaning, this interpretation is entirely at variance with the context. For in the words, “They have made me keeper of their vineyards,” the Shulamite evidently means to explain how she came to be exposed to the tanning sun. Whereas, the supposition of her perpetual attention to the adornment of her brothers, fails to account for the brown complexion. If however, with Ibn Ezra, we take these words to explain the severity of her brothers, everything will be plain and unforced. The damsel says, “My brothers were so angry—so severe with me that, resolved to carry out their purpose, they made me keep their vineyards, ובתחילה קורם זה אפילו כרמי שלי לא נטרתי, a thing which I had never done before, even to my own vineyard. It is utterly inconceivable how those who maintain that this Song celebrates the marriage of Solomon with [[135]]the daughter of Pharaoh can reconcile it with the facts that the damsel’s dark complexion is here described as adventitious; whereas the Egyptians, even of the highest and most secluded classes, are naturally dark, and that she has been made keeper of the vineyards, which would ill agree with any prince’s daughter. כֶּרֶם is most probably derived from כָּרָה = כּוּר, to dig, hence a garden cultivated by means of axes and spades in contradistinction to fields worked with ploughs and harrows. (Compare Saalschütz, Archäologie der Hebräer, vol. i. p. 119.) For the term. –ֶם vide supra, p. 131. שֶׁלִי, i.q. אֲשֶׁר לִי is used emphatically after כַּרִמִי, to mark the contrast, and not, as Houbigant erroneously supposes, in the sense of בשלי, tranquillè, mine own vineyard I kept not quietly.
[7]. Tell me, O thou, &c. Having repelled the disdainful looks of the court ladies, the Shulamite now resumes her address to her beloved; so that this verse is intimately connected with the fourth; and verses five and six are, as it were, parenthetical. Is it not surprising that some can read this verse, and yet believe that the king was the object of the damsel’s attachment, when this shows so clearly that it was a shepherd? The violent heat of noonday compels people in the East to desist from labour, and recline in some cool part of the house (2 Sam. iv. 5). Shepherds especially, being more exposed to the burning rays of the sun, lead their flocks under some shady tree near wells and streams. (Gen. xxix. 7; Ps. xxiii.; Isa. xix. 10.) We have beautiful descriptions of the same custom by Greeks and Romans. Thus Virgil, Georg. iii. 331—
Aestibus at mediis umbrosam exquirere vallem,
Sicubi magna Jovis antiquo robore quercus
Ingentis tendat ramos, aut sicubi nigrum
Ilicibus crebris sacra nemus adcubet umbra.
“When noon-tide flames, down cool sequester’d glades,
Lead where some giant oak the dell o’ershades,
Or where the gloom of many an ilex throws