Rashi, on Song 1:6

“Shew me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou liest in the midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of thy companions.”

“Do not look upon me Do not look upon me disdainfully [like (I Sam. 6:19) “for they had gazed upon the Ark of the Lord”]. because I am swarthy For my blackness and my ugliness are not from my mother’s womb, but from tanning from the sun, for that blackness can easily be whitened by staying in the shade. my mother’s sons were incensed against me These are the Egyptians among whom I grew up, and they went up with me in the mixed multitude; they were incensed against me with their enticement and their seduction until they made me... a keeper of the vineyards and there the sun tanned me and I became blackened; i.e., they made me a worshipper of alien gods, but my own vineyard, which I had from my forefathers, I did not keep. We find that in the Scripture, leaders are called by an expression of vineyards, as it is said (Hos. 2:17): “And I will give to her her vineyards from there,” which the Targum renders: “And I will appoint her leaders for her.” And similarly (Job 24:18): “he will not turn by the way of the vineyards.””

Hebrew and Aramaic words are the commentator’s citations of the sacred text; the English translation that follows each is the translator’s.

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.