Song of Solomon 1:5

“I am dark, but comely, Oh you daughters of Jerusalem, As the tents of Kedar, As the curtains of Solomon.”

The maiden assures the king's subjects, especially the young women among them, of her own attractiveness. She wants them to know that she is dark skinned, but comely. Her beauty is like the splendid black tents of the chieftains of Kedar as they shine in the noonday sun, like the drapings of the tents of Solomon in all their splendor. Thus she has the vibrant beauty of the woman of the desert and dresses finely in beautiful garments.

In a similar way in Jeremiah 6:2 ‘the daughter of Zion' is likened to a comely and delicate woman, one in whom God should have been able to take pride, even though she turned out to be unfaithful. But no prophet would have claimed that she was perfect. As Isaiah makes clear,  ‘all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags'  (Isaiah 64:6). Similarly in Ephesians 5:26 Christ promises that He will keep and nourish His church, as a man does a maiden, and will present her to Himself a glorious church, holy and without blemish, but it is made clear that this results from the fact that He has first cleansed her and clothed her in the splendor of His righteousness (compare 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Having been made clean His people are to be beautiful in Him with the beauty of holiness (Psalms 96:9).

‘Dark, but comely.' The word for ‘dark' means ‘blackish'. She was seemingly darker skinned than the aristocratic daughters of Jerusalem who had enjoyed protection from the sun from birth, and even possibly also on racial grounds. But she would not have shared the blackness of the Ethiopian or Sudanese. She recognized, however, that the darkness of her skin would be seen by the delicate daughters of Jerusalem as a fault. Just as the church is blemished, but comely, to the Lord, Jesus Christ.

The ‘daughters of Jerusalem' who were probably originally daughters of aristocratic parents, probably represent here (in view of the young maiden representing Israel) the satellite nations subject to Israel and to the king. We can compare how satellite villages were called ‘daughters of --' in, for example, Joshua 15:45; Joshua 15:47.