Verse 8 This verse refers to transactions recorded in Numbers 25:1-5. The number mentioned in the original account, (1 Corinthians 10:9,) as destroyed in consequence of the sin, is twenty-four thousand. Many ingenious modes of accounting for this difference have been proposed; but, as it is a difference not at all affecting the point which the apostle had in view, it seems to be of no greater importance than the other verbal diversities between the quotations in the New Testament and the originals in the Old. The evangelists and the apostles never attempt, when they quote, to transcribe the words; the give the substance from memory. It would have been very inconvenient and difficult to have referred always to the passages intended, on account of the forms of the manuscripts in use in those days, and the nature of the character; and the Holy Spirit never interposes, with miraculous aid, to accomplish what would have been of no real advantage; for the substance of the quotation is all that is required.