Bible Strands
Song of Solomon 1:6
Do not stare because I am dark, for the sun has gazed upon me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me a keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have neglected.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses the daughters of Jerusalem immediately following her self-description in the previous verse. She anticipates their judgment while explaining the cause of her darkened skin and her current assignment.
The words — The Hebrew אַל־ (ʾal) issues the command "do not," joined with תִּרְא֙וּ (tirʾû) for "you look at" or "stare." The verb שָׁזַף (shāzap̄) literally denotes the sun's action of "looking on" or "gazing upon" the speaker.
The thread — The vineyard motif resurfaces in Song of Solomon 8:11 when Solomon details leasing his own vineyard in Baal-hamon. The physical description of darkened skin and bodily distress aligns with the suffering described in Job 30:30.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to distinguish between environmental cause and social stigma without excusing the speaker's admitted neglect. It demands a plain reading of labor's physical toll before any moral or spiritual inference is applied.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother’s children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.
Cross-references
- Song of Solomon 8:11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal-hamon. He leased it to the tenants. For its fruit, each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver.
- Luke 12:51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but division.
- Job 30:30 My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.
- Psalms 69:8 I have become a stranger to my brothers and a foreigner to my mother’s sons,
- Jeremiah 12:6 Even your brothers—your own father’s household—even they have betrayed you; even they have cried aloud against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.
- Mark 4:6 But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.
- Ruth 1:19 So Naomi and Ruth traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women of the town exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
- Lamentations 4:8 But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.
- Micah 7:6 For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies are the members of his own household.
- Matthew 10:22 You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.