Neither let us commit fornication Now he speaks of fornication, in respect of which, as appears from historical accounts, great licentiousness prevailed among the Corinthians, and we may readily infer from what goes before, that those who had professed themselves to be Christ's were not yet altogether free from this vice. The punishment of this vice, also, ought to alarm us, and lead us to bear in mind, how loathsome impure lusts are to God, for there perished in one day twenty-three thousand, or as Moses says, twenty-four. Though they differ as to number, it is easy to reconcile them, as it is no unusual thing, when it is not intended to number exactly and minutely each head, [1] to put down a number that comes near it, as among the Romans there were those that received the name of Centumviri, [2] (The Hundred,) while in reality there were two above the hundred. As there were, therefore, about twenty-four thousand that were overthrown by the Lord's hand -- that is, above twenty-three, Moses has set down the number above the mark, and Paul, the number below it, and in this way there is in reality no difference. This history is recorded in Numbers 25:9 There remains, however, one difficulty here -- why it is that Paul attributes this punishment to fornication, while Moses relates that the anger of God was aroused against the people on this account -- that they had initiated themselves in the sacred rites of Baalpeor. [3] But as the defection began with fornication, and the children of Israel fell into that impiety, not so much from being influenced by religious considerations, [4] as from being allured by the enticements of harlots, everything evil that followed from it ought to be attributed to fornication. For Balaam had given this counsel, that the Midianites should prostitute their daughters to the Israelites, with the view of estranging them from the true worship of God. Nay more, their excessive blindness, in allowing themselves to be drawn into impiety [5] by the enticements of harlots, was the punishment of lust. Let us learn, accordingly, that fornication is no light offense, which was punished on that occasion by God so severely and indeed in a variety of ways.

Footnotes

1 - "De faire vn denombrement entier des personnes par testes, comme on dit;" -- "To make a complete enumeration of persons by heads, as they say."

2 - "Les juges qui estoyent deputez pour cognoistre des matieres ciuiles, estoyent nommez les cent, et toutes lois il yen auoit deux par dessus;" -- "The judges who were deputed to take cognizance of civil matters were called The Hundred, and yet there were two above the hundred." As the Centumviri were chosen out of the thirty-five tribes, into which the Roman people were divided, three from each tribe, they consisted properly of 105 persons. -- Ed.

3 - "Auoit sacrifie a Baalpheor;" -- "Had sacrificed to Baalpeor."

4 - "Non pas tant pour affection qu'ils eussent a la fausse religion;" -- "Not so much from any attachment that they had to a false religion."

5 - "Vne impiete si vileine;" -- "An impiety so base."

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.

Fell in one day three and twenty thousand - In Numbers 25:9, the number is 24,000; 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.

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, Jonah. 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.

fornication--literally, Fornication was generally, as in this case (Numbers. 25:1-18), associated at the idol feasts with spiritual fornication, that is, idolatry. This all applied to the Corinthians (1-Corinthians 5:1, 1-Corinthians 5:9; 1-Corinthians 6:9, 1-Corinthians 6:15, 1-Corinthians 6:18; 1-Corinthians 8:10). Balaam tempted Israel to both sins with Midian (Revelation 2:14). Compare 1-Corinthians 8:7, 1-Corinthians 8:9, "stumbling-block," "eat . . . thing offered unto . . . idol."
three and twenty thousand--in Numbers 25:9 "twenty and four thousand." If this were a real discrepancy, it would militate rather against inspiration of the subject matter and thought, than against verbal inspiration. The solution is: Moses in Numbers includes all who died "in the plague"; Paul, all who died "in one day"; one thousand more may have fallen the next day [KITTO, Biblical CyclopÃ&brvbr;dia]. Or, the real number may have been between twenty-three thousand and twenty-four thousand, say twenty-three thousand five hundred, or twenty-three thousand six hundred; when writing generally where the exact figures were not needed, one writer might quite veraciously give one of the two round numbers near the exact one, and the other writer the other [BENGEL]. Whichever be the true way of reconciling the seeming discrepant statements, at least the ways given above prove they are not really irreconcilable.

And fell in one day three and twenty thousand - Beside the princes who were afterwards hanged, and those whom the judges slew so that there died in all four and twenty thousand. Numbers 25:1, Numbers 25:9.