Numbers 25:9

And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) Twenty and four thousand.—In 1Corinthians 10:8 the number of those who “fell in one day” is said to have been “three and twenty thousand.” It has been supposed that a thousand were put to death by the judges, and that these were not included in St. Paul’s enumeration. Presuming, however, that there has been no error in either place on the part of the scribes in recording the numbers, the words “in one day” may account for the apparent discrepancy.

Benson Commentary

Numbers 25:9. Twenty and four thousand — St. Paul mentions only twenty and three thousand, who, he says, fell in one day, 1 Corinthians 10:8. But it seems that one thousand were slain by the judges, (Numbers 25:5,) and twenty- three thousand by the hand of God. For what we render plague does not signify pestilence only, but any other sudden stroke. Thus did the people fall by their own wickedness, whom Balaam and Balak could never have harmed any other way.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:6-15 Phinehas, in the courage of zeal and faith, executed vengeance on Zimri and Cozbi. This act can never be an example for private revenge, or religious persecution, or for irregular public vengeance.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Twenty and four thousand - Paul 1 Corinthians 10:8 says "three and twenty thousand," following probably the Jewish tradition which deducted one thousand as the number slain by the hands of their brethren.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand—Only twenty-three thousand perished (1Co 10:8) from pestilence. Moses includes those who died by the execution of the judges [Nu 25:5].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Object. They were but 23,000, 1 Corinthians 10:8.

Answ. The odd thousand here added were slain by the judges according to the order of Moses, the rest by the immediate hand of God, but both sorts died of the plague, the word being used, as oft it is, for the sword, or hand, or stroke of God.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. The apostle says 23,000 1 Corinthians 10:8. Moses includes those that were hanged against the sun, in the time of the plague, as well as those that were taken off by it, even all that died on this account; the apostle only those that "fell", which cannot with propriety be said of those that were hanged, who might be 1000 and so their numbers agree; but of this and other ways of removing this difficulty See Gill on 1 Corinthians 10:8.

Geneva Study Bible

And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. twenty and four thousand] S. Paul uses the narrative as a warning to Christians (1 Corinthians 10:8). Either by a slip of memory or owing to a variant reading he gives the number as three and twenty thousand.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - Were twenty and four thousand. "Fell in one day three and twenty thousand," says St. Paul (1 Corinthians 10:8). As the Septuagint does not deviate here from the Hebrew, the Apostle must have followed some Rabbinical tradition. It is possible enough that the odd thousand died on some other day than the one of which he speaks, or they may have died by the hands of the judges, and not by the plague. Numbers 25:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Twenty-four thousand men were killed by this plague. The Apostle Paul deviates from this statement in 1 Corinthians 10:8, and gives the number of those that fell as twenty-three thousand, probably from a traditional interpretation of the schools of the scribes, according to which a thousand were deducted from the twenty-four thousand who perished, as being the number of those who were hanged by the judges, so that only twenty-three thousand would be killed by the plague; and it is to these alone that Paul refers.