As some of them committed. When they worshipped Baal-peor. i.e, Priapus, and in his honour committed fornication with the daughters of Moab ( Numbers 25.).
And fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Chrysostom, Anselm, Cajetan, refer this to the plague which was sent because of the fornication with the daughters of Moab, and which is related in Num. xxv. But in ver9 of that chapter the number slain is given as24 ,000 , not23 ,000. (1.) Some account for this by saying that on one day only23 ,000 were slain, and1000 on the day before. But this is pure conjecture, for Scripture says nothing of this. (2.) Cajetan explains it by an error of some scribe, who wrote23 ,000 for24 ,000. (3) Å’cumenius says that some read23 ,000 in Numbers 25:9 as well as here. (4.) Others say that the Apostle is not wrong, because the greater number includes the less. But it is simpler and more natural to say that the Apostle is referring to Exod. xxxii28 , where, according to the Roman Bible, 23 ,00 fell ...
Why does Paul mention fornication again, when he has said so much about it already? It is always Paul’s custom, when he admonishes people of many sins, to put them down in order before proceeding to deal with them individually, and then to refer to earlier topics as he goes down the list. God himself does this in the Old Testament when, in mentioning each particular transgression he keeps going back to the golden calf, reminding the Jews of that sin. Paul is doing this here, reminding them of the sin of fornication and pointing out that the cause of that evil was sloth and gluttony.
And of course it is a sufficient one, that so vast a number-(the number) of 24, 000-of the People, when they committed fornication with the daughters of Madian, fell in one plague.
