Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Corinthians 10:8

"Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand." — 1 Corinthians 10:8 (ASV)

Neither let us commit fornication, etc. The case referred to here was that of the licentious intercourse with the daughters of Moab, referred to in Numbers 25:1-9.

And fell in one day. They were slain for their sin by the plague that prevailed.

Three and twenty thousand. The Hebrew text in Numbers 25:9 is twenty-four thousand. To reconcile these statements, it may be observed that perhaps twenty-three thousand fell directly by the plague, and one thousand were slain by Phinehas and his companions (Grotius); or it may be that the number was between twenty-three and twenty-four thousand, and it could be expressed in round numbers by either (Macknight).

In any case, Paul has not exceeded the truth. At least twenty-three thousand fell, though there might have been more.

The probable supposition is that the twenty-three thousand fell immediately by the hand of God in the plague, and the other thousand by the judges. Since Paul's design was particularly to mention the proofs of the immediate divine displeasure, he refers only to those who fell by the plague, in illustration of his subject.

There was a particular reason for this caution regarding licentiousness:

1. It was common among all idolaters; and Paul, in cautioning them against idolatry, would naturally warn them of this danger.
2. It was common at Corinth. It was the prevalent vice there. To Corinthianize was a term synonymous among the ancients with licentiousness.
3. So common was this at Corinth that, as we have seen (see the Introduction), not less than a thousand prostitutes were supported in a single temple there; and the city was visited by vast multitudes of foreigners, among other reasons, on account of its facilities for this sin. Christians, therefore, were in a peculiar manner exposed to it; and hence the apostle's anxiety to warn them against it.