The upright love thee. The word ‏מֵישָׁרִים‎, is explained by Rashi, Rashbam, Döpke, De Wette, Rosenmüller, Gesenius, &c., by sincerely, uprightly; Ibn Ezra, who is followed by Houbigant, takes it as an adjective for wine, i.e. ‏יַיִן הֹלֵך לְמַישָׁרִים‎, wine that glides down smoothly; and Ewald, Boothroyd, Magnus, Hitzig, &c., render it deservedly, justly. As for ‏אֲהֵבוּךָ‎, it is either referred to ‏עֲלָמוֹת‎, the damsels love thee more than wine (Ibn Ezra); or is taken impersonally, i.e. thou art sincerely or deservedly beloved. (Ewald, Magnus, &c.) But this is against the structure of these verses. For the second and third verses, consisting of five members, form one stanza, finishing with the words ‏עֲלָמוֹת אֲהֵבוּךָ‎; and it is evident that the fourth verse, also consisting of five members, is of the same structure, and that the concluding words ‏מֵישָׁרִים אֲהֵבוּךָ‎, are intended to correspond to those at the end of the first stanza. ‏מֵישָׁרִים‎, therefore, must be taken as a parallelism with ‏עֲלָמוֹת‎, and means the upright. So the Septuagint (εὐθύτης ἠγάπησέ σε, the abstract for concrete), Symmachus, (οἱ εὐθεῖς οἱ αγαπῶντές σε,) the Vulgate (recti diligant te), the Chaldee (‏צַדִּיקָיָא רְחִימוּ‎), English Version (margin), Mendelssohn, Philippson, &c. ‏מֵישָׁרִים‎, the upright, is designedly chosen in preference to ‏עֲלָמוֹת‎, damsels, in order to give an indirect and gentle blow to him who had separated her from her beloved. “Thee, the upright, and not the seduced love.” 5. I am swarthy, &c. The court ladies, indignant at this statement, looked with affected disdain upon the discoloured rustic girl. The Shulamite repels these disdainful looks, for she knows that, though swarthy, she is comely, else the king would not have noticed her. A similar idea occurs in Theocritus (Idyl. x. 26–29), where Bambyce, though sun-burnt, is called beautiful. Βομβύκα χαρίεσσα, Σύραν καλέοντι τὸ πάντες, Ἰσχνὰν, ἁλιόκαυστον· ἐγὼ δὲ μόνος μελίχλωρον. Καὶ τὸ ἴον μέλαν ἐντὶ, καὶ ἁ γραπτὰ ὑάκινθος. Ἀλλ’ ἔμπας ἐν τοῖς στεφάνοις τὰ πρᾶτα λέγονται. “Charming Bambyce, though some call you thin, And blame the tawny colour of your skin; Yet I the lustre of your beauty own, And deem you like Hyblaean honey-brown. The letter’d hyacinth’s of darksome hue, And the sweet violet a sable blue; Yet these in crowns ambrosial odours shed, And grace fair garlands that adorn the head.”