among the people, and they bit the people ; and much people of Israel died." Similar judgments awaited the Corinthians if they exhausted the forbearance of the Lord.
10. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also mur- mured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
To murmur is to complain in a rebeUious spirit. The reference is to Num. 14, 2, "And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron : and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God we had died in the land of Egypt ! or would God we had died in the wilderness." Vs. 11. 12, "And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me ? and how long will it be ere they be- lieve me for all the signs which I have shown among them ? I will smite them with the pestilence, &c." V. 27, "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me ? . . . Their carcasses shall fall in the wilderness." Or the reference is to Num. 16, in which the rebellion of Ko- rah is related, and the subsequent murmuring of the people, V. 41, in consequence of which fourteen thousand and seven hundred were destroyed by a plague, v. 49. In both cases the offence and punishment were the same. Were destroyed of the destroyer^ i. e. by an angel commissioned by God to use the pestilence as an instrument of destruction. Hence some- times the destruction is referred to the pestilence, as in Num. 14, 14 ; sometimes to the angel, as here ; and sometimes both the agent and the instrument are combined, as in 2 Sam. 24, 16. See Acts 12, 23.
11. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples : and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
All these happened (i. e. continued to happen) to them for ensamples. Literally, they were types^ see v. 6. They were intended as historical pictures, to represent, as Calvin says, the effects of idolatry, fornication, murmuring, &c. And they are written^ &c. They were recorded that we might have the benefit of these dispensations, so that we might be admonished to avoid the sins which brought such judgments upon them. Upon whom the ends of the world (literally, of the ages) are com^. That is, upon us who live during the last ages. Dura-