In Song of Solomon, chapter one, verse six, “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.” The cruel brothers of the maiden forced her to guard and care for their vineyards, something she had not done of her own. This outdoor work may be the reason her skin was so dark, a marked contrast to the sun-bonnetted beauties of Jerusalem, though hard had not destroyed her real beauty, as in verse five of the theme chapter, “I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.” Tents of black goat hair were the material in the Old Testament. Kedar was an Arabian tribe descended from Ishmael, as in Genesis twenty-five, verse thirteen, and Isaiah twenty-one, verses sixteen through seventeen, respectively. However, some suggested that the bride was an Arabian princess.
In light of these verses, it is hard to see how some suppose the speaker here was the daughter of Pharaoh, as in First Kings three, verse one, “And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem round about.” This Shulamite maiden was probably the princess Solomon first loved and married before he began entering marriages for the sake of political alliances.
While engaged in the duties imposed by her brothers, she was compelled to neglect something—but what? Some think her beloved, and others her reputation; Her personal appearance had been sacrificed to her brother’s severity.