Proverbs 7:16

I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) Carved works.—Rather, with coloured or striped coverlets. For another notice of the extravagance of the women of Jerusalem, see Isaiah 3, and for a description of the trade of Tyre, the great supplier of foreign luxuries, see Ezek. xxvii Myrrh is said to be a natural product of Arabia, aloes and cinnamon of the east coast of Africa and Ceylon.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:6-27 Here is an affecting example of the danger of youthful lusts. It is a history or a parable of the most instructive kind. Will any one dare to venture on temptations that lead to impurity, after Solomon has set before his eyes in so lively and plain a manner, the danger of even going near them? Then is he as the man who would dance on the edge of a lofty rock, when he has just seen another fall headlong from the same place. The misery of self-ruined sinners began in disregard to God's blessed commands. We ought daily to pray that we may be kept from running into temptation, else we invite the enemies of our souls to spread snares for us. Ever avoid the neighbourhood of vice. Beware of sins which are said to be pleasant sins. They are the more dangerous, because they most easily gain the heart, and close it against repentance. Do nothing till thou hast well considered the end of it. Were a man to live as long as Methuselah, and to spend all his days in the highest delights sin can offer, one hour of the anguish and tribulation that must follow, would far outweigh them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The words point to the art and commerce which flourished under Solomon.

Carved works - Most commentators take the original as meaning "striped coverlets of linen of Egypt."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16, 17. my bed—or, "couch," adorned in the costliest manner.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

She designs to inflame his lust by the mention of the bed, and by its ornaments and perfumes.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry,.... Made use of by the ancients (o) for bed clothes: beautiful ornaments, as Gersom; and precious garments, as Jarchi. She had adorned her bed with curtains and clothes, very delightful to the eye, and inviting; and had well corded it, as some interpret it, with cords of fine linen, and all to allure her lovers; she soon discovered her lustful inclinations, what her heart was upon, and says this, and more, to fire the young man's lust, and cause him to follow her: so the church of Rome adorns her places of worship in the most pompous manner; which are the beds in which she commits adultery, Revelation 2:22; and also her images to strike the minds of people, and draw them into her idolatrous worship;

with carved works; perhaps the bed's head, tester, and posts, were all carved, and cut out of cedar wood and others, as Gersom observes; though some think: this refers to the variety of work in tapestry, which look like incisions and carvings, or the network, and agnet holes made therein: this may be very well applied to the carved work, and carved images, set up in the Romish churches;

with fine linen of Egypt; the sheets, pillows, and bolsters, made thereof, and so soft to lie upon; which was reckoned the best and finest, though not the strongest. Pliny says (p), of the linen of Egypt, that it had less strength and firmness in it (it being so fine); but bore the best price, and was the most gainful and profitable. The word used is not what is elsewhere met with, even when the linen of Egypt is mentioned, and indeed is nowhere else used: the Targum renders it, an Egyptian covering; and so most of the Oriental versions interpret it of bed coverings of tapestry painted, brought out of Egypt. The word is used in the Chaldee language for cords; and may here signify threads of linen twisted together, or linen cords, with which the harlot's bed was corded, and looked beautiful. Pliny (q) says, there were four sorts of linen in Egypt; Tanitic, Pelusiac, Butic, and Tenterytic; so called from the names and provinces where they were cultivated; and perhaps the Etun of Egypt may be the Tanitic: the fine linen, called "byssus", was brought out of India into Egypt; and is said to grow upon a tree as high as the poplar, and its leaves like a willow (r). Egypt is very properly made mention of in this account; it being one of the names of the city of Rome, of the great city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, and equal to both for lust and luxury, Revelation 11:8.

(o) Vid. Homer. Odyss. 4. c. 299. & Odyss. 7. prope finem. (p) Nat. Hist. l. 19. c. 1.((q) Ibid. (r) Philostrat. Vit. Apollen. l. 2. c. 9.

Geneva Study Bible

I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. deckt … with. coverings] Lit. covered … with coverings, or cushioned … with cushions, the words being two forms of the same Heb. root, which does not occur elsewhere.

bed] or, couch: a different and more poetic word than that in Proverbs 7:17. It is used for a couch of moss and flowers, “also our couch is green,” Song of Solomon 1:16.

with carved works &c.] Rather, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt, R.V.

If the rendering of A.V., “And king Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt and linen yarn” (1 Kings 10:28), could stand, we should have an interesting historical light thrown upon this verse. It is now, however, generally thought that the Hebrew word (lit. string) does not mean yarn, but a string, or drove of horses. “And the horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt; and the king’s merchants received them in droves, each drove at a price,” R.V. (See note there in this Series.) The historical notice, however, is still relevant, as showing the commercial relations of Palestine with Egypt in the time of Solomon.

linen] or, yarn, R.V. The Heb. word occurs only here, and is thought by Lange and others to be akin to the Greek word ὀθόνη, fine linen in classical Greek, but in later Greek used more widely, Acts 10:11; Acts 11:5. The LXX. render, ἀμφιτάποις (with cloths hairy or shaggy on both sides) ἔστρωκα τοῖς ἀπʼ Αἰγύπτου.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - She describes the preparation she has made for his entertainment. Coverings of tapestry; marbaddim, "cushions," "pillows." The expression occurs again in Proverbs 31:22. It is derived from דָבַד "to spread," and means cushions spread out ready for use. The Septuagint has κειρίαις; Vulgate, funibus, "cords." These versions seem to regard the word as denoting a kind of delicate sacking on which the coverlets were laid. Carved works, with fine linen of Egypt; literally, striped, or variegated, coverings, Egyptian linen. The words are in apposition, but the latter point to the material used, which is אֵטוּן, etun (ἅπαξ λεγόμενον), "linen yarn or thread," hence equivalent to "coverlets of Egyptian thread." This was of extreme fineness, costly, and much prized. By "carved works" (Hebrew, חֲטֻבות chatuboth) the Authorized Version must refer to bed poles or bed boards elaborately carved and polished; but the word is better taken of coverlets striped in different colours, which give the idea of richness and luxury. Vulgate, trapetibus pictis ex Aegypto, "embroidered rugs of Egyptian work;" Septuagint, ἀμφιτάποις τοῖς ἀπ Αἰγύπτου, "shaggy cloth of Egypt." The mention of these articles denotes the foreign commerce of the Hebrews, and their appreciation of artistic work (comp. Isaiah 19:9; Ezekiel 27:7). The Prophet Amos (Amos 6:4) denounces those that "lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches." Proverbs 7:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Thus she found him, and described to him the enjoyment which awaited him in eating and drinking, then in the pleasures of love.

16 "My bed have I spread with cushions,

     Variegated coverlets, Egyptian linen;

17 I have sprinkled my couch

     With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

18 Come then, we will intoxicate ourselves with love till the morning,

     And will satisfy ourselves in love."

The noun ערשׂ, from ערשׂ, equals Arab. 'arash, aedificare, fabricari, signifies generally the wooden frame; thus not so much the bed within as the erected bed-place (cf. Arab. 'arsh, throne, and 'arysh, arbour). This bedstead she had richly and beautifully cushioned, that it might be soft and agreeable. רבד, from רב, signifies to lay on or apply closely, thus either vincire (whence the name of the necklace, Genesis 41:42) or sternere (different from רפד, Job 17:13, which acquires the meaning sternere from the root-meaning to raise up from under, sublevare), whence מרבדּים, cushions, pillows, stragulae. Bttcher punctuates מרבדּים incorrectly; the ב remains aspirated, and the connection of the syllables is looser than in מרבּה, Ewald, 88d. The צטבות beginning the second half-verse is in no case an adjective to מרבדים, in every case only appos., probably an independent conception; not derived from חטב (cogn. חצב), to hew wood (whence Arab. ḥaṭab, fire-wood), according to which Kimchi, and with him the Graec. Venet. (περιξύστοις), understands it of the carefully polished bed-poles or bed-boards, but from חטב equals Arab. khaṭeba, to be streaked, of diverse colours (vid., under Psalm 144:12), whence the Syriac machṭabto, a figured (striped, checkered) garment. Hitzig finds the idea of coloured or variegated here unsuitable, but without justice; for the pleasantness of a bed is augmented not only by its softness, but also by the impression which its costliness makes on the eye. The following אטוּן מצרים stands in an appositional relation to חטבות, as when one says in Arabic taub-un dı̂bâg'-un, a garment brocade equals of brocade. אטוּן (after the Syr. for אטוּן, as אמוּן) signifies in the Targum the cord (e.g., Jeremiah 38:6), like the Arab. ṭunub, Syr. (e.g., Isaiah 54:2) tûnob; the root is טן, not in the sense of to bind, to wind (Deitr.), but in the sense of to stretch; the thread or cord is named from the extension in regard to length, and אטון is thus thread-work, whether in weaving or spinning.

(Note: Hence perhaps the Greek ὀθόνη, which Fick in his Vergl. Wrterbuch connects with the Arab. verb-root vadh, to bind, wind, clothe, but not without making thereto interrogation marks.)

The fame of Egyptian manufactures is still expressed in the Spanish aclabtea, fine linen cloth, which is equivalent to the modern Arabic el-ḳobṭı̂je (ḳibṭije); they had there particularly also an intimate acquaintance with the dye stuffs found in the plants and fossils of the country (Klemm's Culturgeschichte, v. 308-310).