Proverbs 7:17
I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
I have perfumed my bed,.... As she had made it entertaining to the senses of seeing and feeling, it being showy and gaudy, soft and easy; so to the sense of smelling; and all to provoke lust, and draw into her embraces; by censing it with incense, as Donesh in Jarchi; or by sprinkling {s} a liquor, made of the following spices, on the head, posts, and sides of the bed, to remove all ill scents, and make it more acceptable; so the Targum, Vulgate Latin, Septuagint, and all the Oriental versions, render it, "I sprinkled my bed": or, it may be, by suffumigation, which women are said to use with their garments and bed clothes {t}. Even this the harlot did,
with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon; all odorous, and of a sweet smell: Horace {u} speaks of the anointed beds of such persons; and of the above spices ointments were made, with which the harlot's bed might be perfumed. Cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, are reckoned among the wares of Babylon, or the church of Rome, Revelation 18:13.
{s} Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 13. c. 1.
{t} Clemens Alex. Paedagog. l. 2. c. 8. p. 177.
{u} "Uctis cubilibus pellicum", Epod. Ode. 5. v. 69, 70.