Matthew Poole and continuators on Song of Solomon 1:6

6 Look not upon me because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me : my mothers children were angry with me , they made me the keeper of vineyards , but mine own vineyard have I not kept .

With wonder and disdain, because of my blackness, as it follows.

My blackness is not essential, and inseparable, but chiefly caused by the scorching beams of the Sun, i. e. of [illegible: 1+ letters]ore Persecutions and Tribulations, which by Gods permission have befaln me. which are represented by the Sun, Mat. 13. 6, 21.

False Brethren, who pretend that the Church is their Mother, when their Actions demonstrate, that God, the Husband of the Church, is not their Father, hypocritical Professours, who are, and e[illegible: 1+ letters]er were, the keenest Enemies to the true Church and People of God, Isa. 66. 5. Gal. 4. 29. false Teachers, and their followers, who by their corrupt Doctrines, and Divisions, and Contentions, which they raise, bring great mischief to the Church. See 2 Cor. 11. 26. Gal. 2. 4.

Or, fought against me, as the ancients render it, and so marred my Beauty.

i. e. Of their vineyards, for to these she opposeth her own, in the next clause. Having prevailed against me, they used me like a slave, putting me upon the most dishonourable and troublesom services, such as the keeping of the Vineyards was esteemed, 2 Kin. 25. 12. Isa. 61. 5. Mat. 20. 17.

They gave me such a full and constant employment in their drudging work about their Vineyards, that they left me no time to mind mine own, they hindred me from doing my own duty, and from minding my own concerns. And therefore it is no wonder, if in this posture and condition I be uncomely, and scorched by the Sun. But because Churches or Societies of Professors of Religion, whether good or bad, are oft called Vineyards, as Deut. 32. 32. Psal. 80. 8. Isa. 5. 1, 2, 7. this and the foregoing clause may be thus understood, that they endeavoured to seduce and corrupt the Church with false Doctrines, and Superstitious, or Idolatrous Worship, and to oblige her to countenance and maintain them, and thereby disturbed and hindred her from her proper work, which was the propagation and advancement of the true Doctrine and Worship in particular Assemblies and Persons, belonging, or to be brought in, to her.