Proverbs 7:17

Pro 7:17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

Ver. 17. With myrrh, aloes, &c.] This might have minded the young man that he was going to his grave; for the bodies of the dead were so perfumed. Such a meditation would have much rebated his edge, cooled his courage. Jerusalem’s filthiness was "in her skirts"; and why? "She remembered not her latter end" {Lam 1:9} As the strokings of a dead hand, they say, cureth a tympany; and as the ashes of a viper applied to the part that is stung draws the venom out of it, so the serious thought of death will prove death to fleshly lusts. I meet with a story {a} of one that gave a loose young man a ring with a death’s head, with this condition, that he should one hour daily, for seven days together, look and think upon it, which bred a strange alteration in his life.

{a} Mr Ward’s Sermons.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

bed--a place for sleeping.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 17. 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. perfumed] or sprinkled, R.V. marg.; διέῤῥαγκα, LXX.; aspersi, Vulg. No sensual gratification shall be wanting. For a similar perfuming of garments see Psa_45:8; Son_3:6; Son_4:14.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning,.... Taking him by the hand, and pulling him along, she says, "come"; let us not stand here in the streets, but let us go within, and after supper to bed; and there enjoy ourselves, till "inebriated" with love, as the word (w) signifies: so the poet (x) speaks of "ebrios ocellos", "eyes drunk", that is, with love; and so continue till the morning light, the night being the fittest season for those works of darkness: this expresses the insatiableness of her lust;

let us solace ourselves with loves; mutual love, not lawful, but criminal; more properly lusts; denoting the abundance of it, and the pleasure promised in it, which is very short lived, and bitterness in the end.

(w) "inebriemur", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Piscator, Gejerus, Michaelis, Schultens. (x) Catullus de Acme, Ep. 43. c. 11.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Aloes. Of Syria, (John xix. 39.) different from ours, Numbers xxxiv. 6. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

17. My bed — משׁכבי, (mishkabhi;) meaning the place to sleep on, as the couch or sofa, of Pro_7:16, is the place to recline upon.

Myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon — Our words are nearly the same as the Hebrew; וקנמון מר אהלים, (mor, ahalim, kinnamon.) The fluid extracts are generally supposed to be intended; but Zockler thinks the dry spices, in small bits, were strewed upon the bed. Comp. Psa_45:8; Son_3:6; Son_4:4. The love of perfumes is very great in the Orientals, but is here, as in Isa_3:24, associated with luxurious vice.

Aloes — Lign Aloes, said to be very resinous and fragrant.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. The substances mentioned were dissolved in or mixed with water, and then sprinkled on the couch. The love of such things is reckoned as a sign of luxury and vice. (Isa_3:20, etc.) The three perfumes are mentioned together in Son_4:14; "myrrh, aloes, and cassia," in Psa_45:8. Septuagint, "I have sprinkled my couch with saffron, and my house with cinnamon." Myrrh is nowadays imported chiefly from Bombay, but it seems to be found in Arabia and on the coasts of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. It is a gummy substance exuding from the bark of the balsamodendron when wounded, and possessing an aromatic odour not particularly agreeable to modern tastes. It was one of the ingredients of the holy oil, (Exo_30:28) and was used in the purification of women, (Est_2:12) as well as in perfuming persons and things, and, mixed with aloes, in embalming dead bodies. (Joh_19:39) Aloes is the inspissated juice of the leaves of the aloe, a leguminous plant growing in India, Cochin China, Abyssinia, and Socotra. The ancients used the dried root for aromatic purposes. It is mentioned by Balaam. (Num_24:6) Cinnamon, which is the same word in Hebrew and Greek, is the fragrant bark of a tree growing in Ceylon and India and the east coast of Africa.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I fanned Heb. נפתי. I fanned the scent as one fans with a scarf in a perfumery to bring the scent from above down below. Dunash (Teshuvoth Dunash p. 22) defines it as an expression of smoking, which he states has no comparison.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.