I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
The verse belongs to the vivid, truthful account in the seventh chapter of Proverbs of the strange woman enticing the young man void of understanding away from virtue to her house under cover of darkness, with the sexual temptation presented as alluring. The woman, in the attire of a harlot and subtle of heart, represents a class of women encountered while seeking pleasure, and she is still present with temptation lying in wait at every corner. The verse belongs to the warning in the first seven chapters of Proverbs against rejecting instruction and choosing the path of folly and sexual immorality, which leads to ruin and death. The chapter is urged upon young men because its final verse shows the horrible fate awaiting those who do not turn back.
The verse depicts one of the enticements of the unchaste woman, perfuming her bed with spices to make it sweet and lure the simple. It helps set forth the vicious life in words that go straight to the mark, showing its momentary pleasures alongside its long years of bitter remorse, as part of the ancient evil of prostitution that still endures. The chapter uses plain speech about sexual matters with a purpose, to make sins of this nature, fatal to the health alike of soul and body, appear exceeding sinful, so that young men especially take warning in time and escape the grievous snares thick about their feet. It does not render vice attractive or throw false glamour over what is wholly bad, but paints vice and its dreadful consequences in their own true colors, speaking freely and plainly yet wholly free from coarseness.
Myrrh in the verse is an agreeable perfume, the product of a low thorny tree growing chiefly in Arabia, of strong and agreeable smell. Its fragrant odor becomes more manifest by crushing, squeezing, pressing and bruising, which is the root meaning of tribulation, and Smyrna means myrrh. Just as crushed myrrh gives out fragrance, so the sacrifice and suffering of the church of God in the dark days of pagan persecution under Imperial Rome sent up a sweet-smelling savor known and shared by Christ.
The portrayal in Proverbs 7:10-27 of a harlot whose seductive appeal conceals a path leading to death applies to morality enforced through political power, as a harlot in disguise whose hidden chambers and followers are associated with war, violence, hatred, envy, and division. The verse means the selling not of time or labor but of the self for shame, a peril that overtakes youth left in dense ignorance of passion and of the great and sacred functions of the body. The danger is greatest for girls sent alone to earn a living in great cities, where ignorance of moral dangers leaves them to walk perilous paths where a single false step can commit them to a life of shame. The ranks of such unhappy women are increased by the silence and false modesty that keeps this knowledge from them.
The verse belongs to the vivid, truthful account in the seventh chapter of Proverbs of the strange woman enticing the young man void of understanding away from virtue to her house under cover of darkness, with the sexual temptation presented as alluring. The woman, in the attire of a harlot and subtle of heart, represents a class of women encountered while seeking pleasure, and she is still present with temptation lying in wait at every corner. The verse belongs to the warning in the first seven chapters of Proverbs against rejecting instruction and choosing the path of folly and sexual immorality, which leads to ruin and death. The chapter is urged upon young men because its final verse shows the horrible fate awaiting those who do not turn back.
The verse depicts one of the enticements of the unchaste woman, perfuming her bed with spices to make it sweet and lure the simple. It helps set forth the vicious life in words that go straight to the mark, showing its momentary pleasures alongside its long years of bitter remorse, as part of the ancient evil of prostitution that still endures. The chapter uses plain speech about sexual matters with a purpose, to make sins of this nature, fatal to the health alike of soul and body, appear exceeding sinful, so that young men especially take warning in time and escape the grievous snares thick about their feet. It does not render vice attractive or throw false glamour over what is wholly bad, but paints vice and its dreadful consequences in their own true colors, speaking freely and plainly yet wholly free from coarseness.
Myrrh in the verse is an agreeable perfume, the product of a low thorny tree growing chiefly in Arabia, of strong and agreeable smell. Its fragrant odor becomes more manifest by crushing, squeezing, pressing and bruising, which is the root meaning of tribulation, and Smyrna means myrrh. Just as crushed myrrh gives out fragrance, so the sacrifice and suffering of the church of God in the dark days of pagan persecution under Imperial Rome sent up a sweet-smelling savor known and shared by Christ.
The portrayal in Proverbs 7:10-27 of a harlot whose seductive appeal conceals a path leading to death applies to morality enforced through political power, as a harlot in disguise whose hidden chambers and followers are associated with war, violence, hatred, envy, and division. The verse means the selling not of time or labor but of the self for shame, a peril that overtakes youth left in dense ignorance of passion and of the great and sacred functions of the body. The danger is greatest for girls sent alone to earn a living in great cities, where ignorance of moral dangers leaves them to walk perilous paths where a single false step can commit them to a life of shame. The ranks of such unhappy women are increased by the silence and false modesty that keeps this knowledge from them.