What Does Song of Solomon 1:5 Mean?
I am dark, yet lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.THE KEY
Hebrew joins “black” and “comely” with “and,” so the verse holds darkness and beauty together rather than making them opposites.
THE MEANING
You can name what is visible in you without making it a verdict on your beauty. The verse holds darkness and loveliness together in one voice, pictured in the tents of Kedar and the curtains of Solomon.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that dark skin and beauty are opposites, or that dark skin must be excused before beauty can be named.
THE ROOT
שְׁחוֹרָה
sheḥōrāh
GROWS FROM
שחר
š-ḥ-r
To be dark or black.
The feminine form describes the speaker, and the verse joins it to “comely” with וְ (wə, “and”). The dark image is also made tangible in Kedar’s tents, so color and beauty remain together in the line.
ALSO GROWS
shāḥōr: Black or dark, masculine form.
שָׁחוֹר
It shares the root of the speaker’s description and shows this is a color word, not a judgment of worth.
sheḥōrāh: Black or dark, feminine form.
שְׁחוֹרָה
This is the form used for the speaker, keeping the description personal and direct.
נָאוָה
naʾvāh
GROWS FROM
נאה
n-ʾ-h
To be beautiful, becoming, or fitting.
“lovely” in this verse is naʾvāh. The word carries beauty with a sense of what is becoming or fits. In this verse, that loveliness belongs beside the speaker’s dark complexion without needing to displace it.
ALSO GROWS
naʾveh: Comely, becoming, or fitting.
נָאוֶה
Its sense of what is becoming gives “comely” a shade of beauty that belongs, rather than beauty borrowed from comparison.
naʾvāh: Beautiful or comely.
נָאוָה
This is the feminine form in the verse, directly naming the speaker’s loveliness.
שְׁלֹמֹה
Šĕlōmōh
GROWS FROM
שלם
š-l-m
To be whole or complete.
Solomon’s name carries the root of wholeness. The verse places the speaker’s beauty alongside royal curtains, while the name itself quietly echoes completeness.
ALSO GROWS
shālōm: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This root-sibling lets Solomon’s name carry an echo of wholeness into the verse’s final image.
shālēm: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
It shows the shared root’s sense of completeness, resonating with the verse’s unfragmented pairing of darkness and beauty.
THE PATTERN
A visible feature that is judged can remain part of a whole beauty rather than cancel it.
Do not look at me, because I am dark, because the sun has glared at me. My mother's sons burned against me. They made me the keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not guarded.But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.But I say to you, not even Solomon in all his weight was wrapped as one of these.THE THREAD
Do not look at me, because I am dark, because the sun has glared at me. My mother's sons burned against me. They made me the keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not guarded.The next verse repeats שְׁחוֹרָה (sheḥōrāh, “black”), the same word used here. It names the sun’s gaze and the speaker’s circumstances alongside her appearance, deepening the way this passage holds what is visible together with the pressures surrounding it.
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