Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
Fornication. Numbers 25:1-5 assigns idolatry of Baal-peor as the cause; but fornication was associated at the idol feast with it, and prompted Israel to it. This harlotry applied to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 5:1; 1 Corinthians 5:9; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Corinthians 6:15; 1 Corinthians 6:18; 1 Corinthians 8:10). Balaam tempted Israel to both sins (Revelation 2:14: cf. 1 Corinthians 8:7; 1 Corinthians 8:9).
Three and twenty thousand - in Numbers 25:9, "twenty and four thousand." If this were a real discrepancy, it would militate rather against inspiration of the subject matter than against verbal respiration. But Moses, in Numbers, includes all who died "in the plague;" Paul, all who died "in one day;" 1,000 more may have fallen next day; or the real number may have been between 23,000 and 24,000-say, 23,500 or 23,600. When writing generally, where exact figures were not needed, one writer might veraciously give one of the two round numbers near the exact one, and the other writer the other. Whichever be the true way of reconciling the statements, at least they are not irreconcileable.