1 Corinthians 10:8

Contextual Overview

⁶ And these things that happened are examples for us. These examples should stop us from wanting evil things like those people did. ⁶ Now these things are warnings for us, not to desire evil as they did. ⁶ These are ensamples to vs that we shuld not lust after evyll thinges as they lusted ⁶ Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. ⁶ Now these things became examples for us so that we won't set our hearts on evil as they did.Numbers 11:4,33-34; Psalm 106:14;">[xr] ⁶ Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they indeed craved them. ⁶ And these things happened as examples for us, to stop us from wanting evil things as those people did. ⁶ Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. ⁶ Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. ⁶ Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Corinthians 6:18, Numbers 25:1-9, Psalms 106:29, Revelation 2:14

Reciprocal: Genesis 34:7 - thing Exodus 32:28 - there fell Numbers 25:9 - General Joshua 22:17 - from which Proverbs 7:26 - General Proverbs 23:28 - increaseth 1 Corinthians 5:11 - or an idolater Ephesians 5:3 - fornication Hebrews 12:16 - any fornicator

Cross-References

Micah 5:6
With swords in hand our leaders will defeat the Assyrians and rule the land of Nimrod. They will save us from the Assyrians when they come into our land and march through our territory.

Micah 5:6
They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, The land of Nimrod at its entrances; And He will rescue us from the Assyrian When he invades our land, And when he tramples our territory.

Micah 5:6
They will destroy the Assyrians with their swords; they will conquer the land of Assyria with their swords drawn. They will rescue us from the Assyrians when they come into our land, when they walk over our borders.

Micah 5:6
And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with the dagger: and he shall deliver from the Assyrian, when he comes into our land, and when he treads inside our border.

Micah 5:6
And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in its entrances: thus will he deliver [us] from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.

Micah 5:6
They shall devastate the land of Assyria with the sword and The land of Nimrod within her [own] gates. And He (the Messiah) shall rescue us from the Assyrian (all enemy nations) When he attacks our land And when he tramples our territory.

Micah 5:6
they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod at its entrances; and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes into our land and treads within our border.

Micah 5:6
They will rule the land of Assyria with the sword, And the land of Nimrod in its gates. He will deliver us from the Assyrian, When he invades our land, And when he marches within our border.

Micah 5:6
And thei schulen frete the lond of Assur bi swerd, and the lond of Nembroth bi speris of hym; and he schal delyuere vs fro Assur, whanne he schal come in to oure lond, and whanne he schal trede in oure coostis.

Micah 5:6
And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our border.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Neither let us commit fornication,.... To which the Corinthians were much addicted: hence the apostle elsewhere, in this epistle, makes use of arguments, to dissuade from it, as he does here, they judging it to be no evil:

as some of them committed; i.e. fornication; as they did at Shittim, with the daughters of Moab, Numbers 25:1 which was a stratagem of Balaam's, and the advice he gave to Balak king of Moab, to draw them into that sin, which made way for their commission of idolatry, which they committed by eating the sacrifices of their gods, and bowing down unto them; particularly they joined themselves to Baal Peor, the same with Priapus, one part of whose religious rites lay in acts of uncleanness, and this brought the divine displeasure on them:

and fell in one day three and twenty thousand; in Numbers 25:9 the number said to be "twenty and four thousand": and so say all the three Targums on the place w, and both the Talmuds x and others y; on the other hand, all the Greek copies of this epistle, and the Oriental versions, agree in the number of twenty and three thousand; so that it does not appear to be any mistake of copies, in either Testament. To reconcile this matter, or at least to abate the difficulties of it, let the following things be observed; as that the apostle does not write as an historian, and so not with that exactness as Moses did; besides, he does not say that there fell "only" three and twenty thousand, and this beings lesser number than is contained in his, and so a certain truth; moreover, Moses and the apostle use different words in their account; Moses says there died so many, including the heads of the people that were hanged up against the sun, and all that perished by the sword; the apostle says, that there fell such a number, referring only to the latter, who only could be properly said to fall, and not those that were hanged up: now the heads of the people that suffered the first kind of death, might, as is very probable, be a thousand; and they that died in the other way, three and twenty thousand, which make the sums to agree, and both are expressed by Moses, under the general name of a plague or stroke; to all this, that the apostle uses a limiting clause, which Moses does not, and says that these three and twenty thousand fell in one day. So that it is very likely that the heads of the people, supposed to be a thousand, were hanged up in one day; and the three and twenty thousand that fell by the sword died the next, which the apostle only takes notice of. Hence the Jew z has no reason to charge the apostle with an error.

w Targum Onkelos, Jon. ben Uzziel & Jerusalem in Numb, xxv. 9. x T. Hieros Sota, fol. 21. 4. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 106. 1. y Midrash Kohelet, fol. 68. 4. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 127. 3. z R. Isaac Chizzuk Emuna, par. 2. c. 36. p. 468.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Neither let us commit fornication ... - The case referred to here was that of the licentious contact with the daughters of Moab, referred to in Numbers 25:1-9.

And fell in one day - Were slain for their sin by the plague that prevailed.

Three and twenty thousand - The Hebrew text in Numbers 25:9, is twenty-four thousand. In order to reconcile these statements, it may be observed that perhaps 23,000 fell directly by the plague, and 1,000 were slain by Phinehas and his companions (Grotius); or it may be that the number was between 23,000 and 24,000, and it might be expressed in round numbers by either - Macknight. At all events, Paul has not exceeded the truth. There were at least 23,000 that fell, though there might have been more. The probable supposition is, that the 23,000 fell immediately by the hand of God in the plague, and the other thousand by the judges; and as Paul’s design was particularly to mention the proofs of the immediate divine displeasure, he refers only to those who fell by that, in illustration of his subject - There was a particular reason for this caution in respect to licentiousness:

(1) It was common among all idolaters; and Paul in cautioning them against idolatry, would naturally warn them of this danger.

(2) It was common at Corinth. It was the prevalent vice there. To “Corinthianize” was a term synonymous among the ancients with licentiousness.

(3) So common was this at Corinth, that, as we have seen (see the introduction), not less than 1,000 prostitutes were supported in a single temple there; and the city was visited by vast multitudes of foreigners, among other reasons on account of its facilities for this sin. Christians, therefore, were in a special manner exposed to it; and hence, the anxiety of the apostle to warn them against it.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Corinthians 10:8. Fell in one day three and twenty thousand. — In Numbers 25:9, the number Isaiah 24:0; and, allowing this to be the genuine reading, (and none of the Hebrew MSS. exhibit any various reading in the place,) Moses and the apostle may be thus reconciled: in Numbers 25:4, God commands Moses to take all the heads (the rulers) of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun; these possibly amounted to 1000, and those who fell by the plague were 23,000, so that the whole amounted to 24,000. Instead of εικοσιτρεις χιλιαδες, 23,000, two MSS., with the later Syriac and the Armenian, have εικοσιτεσσαρες χιλιαδες, 24,000; but this authority is too slender to establish a various reading, which recedes so much from the received text. I think the discordance may be best accounted for by supposing, as above, that Phineas and his companions might have slain 1000 men, who were heads of the people, and chief in this idolatry; and that the plague sent from the Lord destroyed 23,000 more; so an equal number to the whole tribe of Levi perished in one day, who were just 23,000. See Numbers 26:62; and see Lightfoot.