A.T. Robertson Commentary 1 Corinthians 10:5

"Howbeit with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness." — 1 Corinthians 10:5 (ASV)

With most of them (εν τοις πλειοσιν αυτων). "A mournful understatement," for only two (Caleb and Joshua) actually reached the Promised Land (Numbers 14:30–32). All the rest were rejected or αδοκιμο (9:27).

Were overthrown (κατεστρωθησαν). First aorist passive indicative of καταστρωννυμ, old compound verb, to stretch or spread down as of a couch, to lay low (Euripides), as if by a hurricane. Powerful picture of the desolation wrought by the years of disobedience and wanderings in the desert by this verb quoted from Nu 14:16.