By which may be meant, either a man’s wife, or his body, and it is not very easy to determine which, for the Jews call both by this name. Sometimes they call a woman \u03bclwg, which the gloss says is a \u201cvessel\u201d unfinished. It is reported, that when R. Eleazar died, Rabbenu Hakkadosh would have married his widow, and she would not, because she was h\u00e7wdq l\u00e7 ylk, \u201ca vessel of holiness\u201d, greater than he. Moreover, it is said, that \u201che that forces (a young woman) must drink wxyx[b, \u201cin his own vessel\u201d how drink in his own vessel? though she be lame, though she be blind, and though she is stricken with ulcers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The commentators on the passage add, \u201cin the vessel which he has chosen; that is to say, whether he will or not, he must marry her;\u201d\u2028(see Proverbs 5:15). And again, they sometimes call a man’s wife his tent: hence that saving, \u201cwt\u00e7a ala wlha \u02c6ya \u201cthere is no tent but his wife\u201d, as it is said, (Deuteronomy 5:30), go, say to them, get you into your tents again.\u201d<\/p>\n
And certain it is, that the woman is called the \u201cweaker vessel\u201d in (1 Peter 3:7), between which passage and this there seems to be some agreement. The same metaphor of a \u201cvessel\u201d is made use of in both; and as there, honour to be given to the weaker vessel, so here, a man’s vessel is to be possessed in honour; and as there, husbands are to dwell with their wives according to knowledge so here, knowledge is required to a man’s possessing his vessel aright. Now for a man to possess his vessel in this sense, is to enjoy his wife, and to use that power he has over her in a becoming manner; (see 1 Corinthians 7:4), and which is here directed to \u201cin sanctification and honour\u201d; that is, in a chaste and honourable way; for marriage is honourable when the bed is kept undefiled; and which may be defiled, not only by taking another into it, and which is not possessing the wife in sanctification and honour, it is the reverse, for it is a breaking through the rules of chastity and honour; but it may even be defiled with a man’s own wife, by using her in an unnatural way, or by any unlawful copulation with her; for so to do is to use her in an unholy, unchaste, wicked, and dishonourable manner; whereas possessing of her according to the order and course of nature, is by the Jews, in agreement with the apostle, called, wmx[ \u00e7dqm, \u201ca man’s sanctifying himself\u201d, and is chaste, and honourable. And it may be observed, that the Jews use the same phrase concerning conjugal embraces as the apostle does here. One of their canons runs thus: \u201cthough a man’s wife is free for him at all times, it is fit and proper for a disciple of a wise man to use himself h\u00e7wdqb, \u201cin\u201d, or \u201cto sanctification\u201d.\u201d<\/p>\n
When these thing’s are observed, this sense of the words will not appear so despicable as it is thought by some. The body is indeed called a \u201cvessel\u201d; (see 2 Corinthians 4:7), because in it the soul is contained, and the soul makes use of it, and its members, as instruments, for the performance of various actions; and, with Jewish writers, we read of wpwg ylk, \u201cthe vessel of his body\u201d; so then, for a man to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour, is to keep under his body and bring it into subjection, and preserve it in purity and chastity; as the eyes from unchaste looks, the tongue from unchaste words, and the other members from unchaste actions; and to use it in an honourable way, not in fornication, adultery, and sodomy; for, by fornication, a man sins against his own body; and by adultery he gets a wound, and a dishonour, and a reproach that will not be wiped away; and by sodomy, and such like unnatural lusts, men dishonour their own bodies between themselves: particularly by \u201chis vessel\u201d, as Gataker thinks, may be meant the \u201cmembrum virile\u201d, or the genital parts, which, by an euphemism, may he so called; (see 1 Samuel 21:5)<\/p>\n