ness, 1 Cor. 10, 9, and that Moses suffered his reproach, Heb. 11, 26 ; Jude 5. says, the Lord, or (asLachmann, after the an- cient MSS. and versions, reads) Jesus, saved his people out of Egypt. This truth early impressed itself on the mind of the Christian church, as appears from the prayer in the ancient Liturgies, O Adonai (Supreme Lord), et Dux Domiis Israel, qui Mosi in igne flammeo rubi apparuisti, et ei in Sina aquam dedisti, veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extracto.
5. But with many of them God was not well pleased : for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
JSut^ i. e. notwithstanding they had been thus highly fa- voured. With many y' literally, with the greater number. God teas not well pleased^ that is, he was displeased. The proof of his displeasure was that they were overthrown in the wilderness. Literally, they were strewed as corpses in the wil- derness. Their path through the desert could be traced by the bones of those who perished through the judgments of God.
6. Now these things were our examples, to the in- tent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
These things were our examples ; literally, our types. A type is an impression ; any .thing produced by blows ; then an impression which has a resemblance to something else ; then a model to which some other person or thing should be, or in point of fact would be, conformed. The Israelites and the facts of their history were our types, because we shall be con- formed to them if we do not exercise caution. Our doom will correspond to theirs. They therefore stand as warnings to us. The particular thing against which their fate was designed to warn us, is lusting after evil. According to Num. 11, 4, the people lusted after, i. e. they inordinately longed for, the flesh- pots of Egypt, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat ? God gave them their desire — " but while the flesh was yet between their teeth, he smote them with a great plague, and the place was called the ' graves of lust,' for there they buried the peo- ple that lusted," Num. 11, 34. Comp. Ps. 78, 27-31, and 105, 14. 15. This was a perpetual warning against the indulgence of inordinate desires for forbidden objects. It was specially