the majority of the multitude easily follow, rushing both into sin and to punishment. — hdOicev, ? c.r.X.) So the lxx., Exod. xxxii. 6. — <payuv xat -r/g/V, to eat and drink) This quotation is much to the purpose; comp. ver. 21. — $ra/£s/v, to play) A joyful festival is here indicated {celebrated with lascivious dancing around the calf. — Y. g.), and at the same time the vanity of the festival on account of the idol is implied.
8. ’Ecropgyo'av, committed fornication) Num. xxv. 1. — eUoci rpeTg Xihiudss, twenty-three thousand) They are said to have been twenty- four thousand , Num. xxv. 9. A stroke from God swept them away ; but besides, the princes [“ the heads of the people,” Num. xxv. 4] were hanged, and the judges were commanded to put to death their men , over whom they presided, who had been joined to Baal-peor. Moses as well as Paul gives the number of them, whom the plague itself of that day destroyed. Why then does Paul subtract a thousand ? The precise number of the dead, we may suppose, was between the round numbers, 23,000, and 24,000, say 23,600, and had been known by tradition. We do not fol- low the subtilties of other interpreters.
9. Myd's htfeipa^u/Aev) The compound verb, as in Matt. iv. 7. The simple verb follows immediately after. — rov Xpnfrov, Christ) Paul mentions five benefits, ver. 1-4, of which the fourth and fifth were closely connected ; and five crimes, of which the fourth and fifth were in like manner closely connected. In speaking of the fifth benefit, he expressly mentions Christ ; and in speaking of the fourth crime, he shows that it was committed against Christ. [_See App ., P. II., on this passage , where the reading Xp/ffrbv is defended against Artemonius , Not. Crit.1*]. — sKstpacav, tempted) Num. xxi. 5. Christ is therefore God. Comp. Ex. xvii. 2. Often those things which are declared concerning the Lord in Old Testament, are spoken of Christ in New Testament, Rom. xiv. 10, 11 ; and that temptation , by which the people sinned, was an offence peculiarly against Christ, Ex. xxiii. 20, xxxii. 34 ; Is. lxiii. 9 ; for when they had drunk from that Rock,
1 Lachm. reads K vpiov with BC, and some MSS. of Memph. Vers. But Tischend., with D(A)G/^ Vulg., both Syr. Versions, Memph., Theb., and Marcion, according to Epiphanius (o be MuqkIuv dvrl tov K vqiov Xqiotov hwoiw ev), Iren. 264, Xgiarov. This last is the better attested reading therefore. A has Seov. — Ed.