Proverbs 7:17
in Proverbs 7I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, with aloes, and with cinnamon.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I have perfumed my bed With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
KJV
I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
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This verse in Proverbs 7
Commentary
7 notes on this verseWith a provocative movement of a prostitute, with a disrupted gait through delights, with wandering eyes, and with playful darting of her eyelids, she captures the precious souls of young men (for the eye of a prostitute is a snare of a sinner), and with doubtful perception, she accosts anyone passing by in the corner of her house, with charming words, causing the hearts of young men to flutter, restless at home, wandering in the streets, prodigal with kisses, cheap in modesty, rich in attire, painted cheeks.
This site's exposition
I have decked my bed with coverings
on Proverbs 7:16-20
The speech turns from religious pretext to sensory inventory, Egyptian linen, myrrh and cinnamon, an appeal built entirely on the furnishing of a room rather than on anything true about the man she addresses. Her closing argument in verses 19 and 20 is logistics: the goodman is away and far off, the money bag is taken with him, the return date is fixed, so the danger she is selling is calculated safety. Bridges notes that every clause of her speech answers an objection the young man has not yet raised, which is itself the mark of a seasoned approach rather than a chance meeting.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
I have scented my bed with myrrh, etc. They promise that they have such fragrances of heavenly virtues, by which they consecrate their hearts and those of their followers as if in beautiful bedchambers; so that they may say with the Apostle: For we are …
Uncircumcised in smell and touch are those who are steeped in ointment and various odors, who pursue the embraces of a harlot, sprinkling their bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
I have perfumed my bed,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
The love of perfumes is here, as in Isa 3:24, a sign of luxurious vice. Cinnamon - The Hebrew word is identical with the English. The spice imported by the Phoenician traders from the further East, probably from Ceylon, has kept its name through all changes of language.
I have perfumed any bed with Myrrh - מר mor, “aloes,” אהלים ahalim, and “cinnamon,” קנמון kinnamon. We have taken our names from the original words; but probably the ahalim may not mean aloes, which is no perfume; but sandal wood, which is very much used in the East. She had used every means to excite the passions she wished to bring into action.
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 45:8All your garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from palaces of ivory the harps make you glad.
it leads to
- Song of Solomon 1:3
The fragrance of your perfume is pleasing; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens adore you.
- Song of Solomon 4:6
Before the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will make my way to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 2 Corinthians 2:14–16
But thanks be to God, who always leads us triumphantly as captives in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.
- John 19:39
Nicodemus, who had previously come to Jesus at night, also brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.
- Song of Solomon 1:3
Through
Song of Solomon 3:6Who is this coming up from the wilderness like a column of smoke, scented with myrrh and frankincense from all the spices of the merchant?
it leads to
- Song of Solomon 8:5
Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? I roused you under the apple tree; there your mother conceived you; there she travailed and brought you forth.
- Song of Solomon 1:13
My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts.
- Song of Solomon 8:5
Through
Exodus 30:23“Take the finest spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half that amount (250 shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of fragrant cane,
it leads to
- Song of Solomon 4:14
with nard and saffron, with calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of frankincense tree, with myrrh and aloes, with all the finest spices.
- Ezekiel 27:19
and casks of wine from Izal for your wares. Wrought iron, cassia, and sweet cane were exchanged for your merchandise.
- Song of Solomon 4:14
About Proverbs
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, On Cain and Abel; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Bede, Homilies on the Gospels 1:11; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).