Verse 9
9. Ointment and perfume Odoriferous ointment, incense, or distilled perfume.
Rejoice the heart Refresh, comfort, exhilarate the spirits. “During our conversation some slaves brought a very richly ornamented silver tripod, filled with burning coals, upon which some incense was thrown, and it was presented to us to inhale the fragrant smoke; and at the moment we inclined our head a slave sprinkled some rose-water over us from a bottle he held in his left hand.” Bramsen’s Tour, quoted by Burder. Probably to such a custom, so calculated to refresh and exhilarate, the words of Solomon have an allusion.
The sweetness The agreeableness, “the comity.” Stuart.
By hearty counsel “That which springs from the set purpose of the soul.” Stuart. “So agreeable is the counsel of a person to a friend.” Boothroyd. “Sweet, too is a man’s friend by hearty counsel.” Noyes. “But the sweetness of a friend is above scented wood.” Trench. So Gesenius, Conant, and others, substantially. The diversity of reading grows out of the similarity of the words, in the Hebrew, for wood and counsel. In Isaiah 3:20, בתי הנפשׁ , ( botte hannephesh,) are understood to mean perfume boxes. In the Authorized Version, tablets. How much precious ointment, fragrant woods, and spices were esteemed by the ancient Orientals is attested by many passages of both the Old and the New Testaments. (See M’Clintock
& Strong’s Cyclopaedia, under the word “Anoint.”)
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