I’ve perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
Parallel translations
- WEB I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
- KJV I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
- BSB I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, with aloes, and with cinnamon.
- NKJV I have perfumed my bed With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
- NASB “I have sprinkled my bed With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
She has perfumed her bed with costly, fragrant spices. Sin appeals to the senses to weaken resolve.
Overview
Myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon evoke a rich, alluring atmosphere meant to entice. The sensual imagery continues her calculated campaign to seduce the naive youth. The verse exposes how temptation carefully crafts an appeal to every sense.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Ps 45:8All your garments smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia. Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made you glad.
- Isa 57:7–9On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed. You also went up there to offer sacrifice.
- Song 4:13–14Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits: henna with spikenard plants,
- Song 3:6Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all spices of the merchant?
- Exod 30:23“Also take fine spices: of liquid myrrh, five hundred shekels; and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, even two hundred and fifty; and of fragrant cane, two hundred and fifty;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 7:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.