1 Corinthians 10:9,10 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Neither let us tempt Christ By our unbelief and distrusting his providence, after the tokens he hath given us to encourage our faith, and engage our dependance; as some of them Of the next generation; tempted him While he resided among them as the angel of God's presence, who led them through the wilderness, Exodus 23:20-21; Isaiah 63:9; and were destroyed of serpents From the venom of which others were recovered by looking at the brazen serpent, which was so illustrious a type of the Messiah. “In the history, these are called fiery serpents, Deuteronomy 8:15; and Gesner is of opinion that these serpents were of the dipsas kind, (a name taken from the thirst they cause in those they sting,) which Lucian hath described in his treatise, entitled Dipsades, where, speaking of the deserts of Lybia, he says, ‘Of all the serpents which inhabit these solitudes, the most cruel is the dipsas, no bigger than a viper, but whose sting causes most dismal pains, even till death. For it is a gross venom, which burns, breeds thirst, and putrifies; and those who are afflicted with it, cry as if they were in the fire.' For an account of this serpent, see Kolben's State of the Cape of Good Hope, vol. 2. p. 165.” Macknight. Neither murmur ye Under those dispensations of providence, which may seem at present very afflictive, particularly on account of the malice and power of your enemies; as some of them murmured When they heard the report of the spies, Numbers 14:2; and were destroyed of the destroyer The destroying angel, who was commissioned by one judgment after another to take them off. The Jews generally interpret this of him whom they fancy to be the angel of death, and whom they called Sammael. See on Hebrews 2:14.