Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar;
Song of Solomon 1:5 “I am black, but beautiful, Oh you daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.”
I once had a rabbi tell me that the most difficult book to translate out of the Hebrew is the Song of Solomon. The constant grammatical changes in gender and number can make finding proper syntax a nightmare. Then you add to that the discipline of Hebrew poetry and the deep pictures that Hebrew poetry present and you have a real task on your hand.
So, we come to Song of Solomon 1:5 where Solomon’s beloved says she is black but beautiful. Is this talking about a skin color or something else. Much of our early translations have strong cultural roots and there seems to be almost a feeling that because her skin color happens to be black, she should not be beautiful. Yet, such attitudes is ancient times were quite the opposite. Foreign women with dark skin were prized as very beautiful, so to make the assumption that despite her skin color she is still beautiful would really not fit.
The word for black is “shachar.” This does mean black, but in it’s primitive form, the word indicates early morning before the sun comes up, hence night, or black. Let’s just assume for a moment that we use the primitive form of the word. Solomon’s beloved is saying she is early but yet beautiful. What does that mean. Well, who looks beautiful in the morning before you have a chance to brush your hair, shower, and for a woman to put on her makeup. Women who lived in the palace as a wife or concubine would spend hours adorning themselves. I mean what else did they have to do. It was almost a full time job. Yet we learn in this passage that Solomon’s beloved was forced to work the vineyards and as a result was “black.” The most common assumption is that working in the sun gave her a deep tan. My study partner insist she was weather beaten. I tend to agree with this line of thinking, but would add that she had no time nor resources to beautify herself like the women of the royal court, yet she was still beautiful in the eyes of the king.
We then look at the parallelism of Hebrew poetry. She is early morning or one who has not taken time to beautify her skin and appearance but is yet beautiful, like the tents of Kedar, but like the curtains of Solomon. The tents of Kedar are the Bedouins tents. The people of Kedar were herdsmen, living in a settlement just East of Jerusalem. Their tents were subject to the harsh winds and weather of the desert. These tents were not cleaned, nor cared for. I mean who cared, a tent was shelter and what they looked like did not matter. Solomon’s beloved then compares herself to the curtains of Solomon which were daily cleaned and pampered. This is a way of restating the phrase, “I am black but beautiful.”
If we are now to make a personal application of us to Jesus, we have a really beautiful picture here. We are weather beaten, too busy to make ourselves worthy of Jesus yet in His eyes we are beautiful. We do not have make it a full time job serving him, taking on all the adornments of holiness to be attractive to Him. He loves us just as we are and He will clean us up. We do not have to be like the woman who cleans up her house before the maid arrives so the house looks presentable to her. That is the maid’s job to make the house presentable. So too, it is the job of Jesus to make us presentable. Like the old hymn:
Just as I am, without one plea
But that they blood was shed for me.
And that thou bidst me come to thee
O’ lamb of God I come.
Your Friend
Thank you for your comment, if God could use my studies to draw just one person back to His Word, then it is all worth it. As the Talmud teaches to save one life is to save the world. Each lamb is precious to God and He will leave the ninety and nine to search for the one lost lamb.
The Word of God is a love letter and a love letter is meant to be read only by the beloved. Somehow, having some scholar sitting up an office covered with ivy with a library of dusty books, someone who hasn’t kissed his wife in 20 years explain to me what this personal love letter is suppose to say, just does not cut it. God has given you His Holy Spirit to reveal His personal love message to you, learn to discover those deep hidden messages by reading His Word with your heart, like you would read a love letter.
You know how you read a love letter. “Dear Sally” Hmmmm, why did he say “dear” and not “my dearest” or “dear one?” Is he trying to draw away from me, is he losing interest?” In a love letter you savor every word, every letter. You analyze it, meditate on it, rejoice on it, and think on it all day long. So too with the Lover Letter, the Bible that God has given to you.
Col. 3:15 tells us to let the peace of God rule your heart. When you read something in God’s Word that brings peace to your heart, dwell on that, for God is speaking to you, He speaks in peace. Let your heart rule your study.
Your Friend
Chaim
I love these devotionals and this resource. Thank you so much for the gift of your wisdom and insight into the Word of God! I have had an “on again, off again” love affair with the Bible for many years. Over the past few years, God has proven His faithfulness over and over through many challenges and upheavals in my life, while moving me into leadership positions within the church. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, the significance of being in the Word and its impact of my relationship with God. But, although my faith has grown, my desire to be in the Word has dwindled. I had purchased the Message Bible hoping it would bring freshness, however, it wasn’t deep enough for me. I had started my journey into the Word of God the Hebrew-Greek Study Bible, and none of the other translations seem to do much for me. I prayed and prayed that God would light the fire again. Then I stumbled across your book, “Hebrew Word Study – A Hebrew Teacher’s Search for the Heart of God.” Praise the Lord, this book whet my appetite and made me hungry for the Word of God again! I now look forward to receiving the daily devotionals via email and pulling out my Bible to dive into the heart of God! I cannot thank you enough for your ministry. God has used it to draw me back into His Word. God bless you!