Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
Neither murmur ye - How the Israelites murmured because of the manna, which their souls despised as a light bread - something incapable of affording them nourishment, etc., and because they had been brought out of Egypt into the wilderness, and pretended that the promises of God had failed; and how they were destroyed by serpents, and by the destroyer or plague; may be seen at large in the texts referred to in the margin on this and the preceding verses. It appears from what the apostle says here, that the Corinthians were murmuring against God and his apostle for prohibiting them from partaking of the idolatrous feasts, just as the Israelites did in the wilderness in reference to a similar subject. See the history of Phineas, with Zimri and Cosbi, and the rebellion of Corah and his company, etc., etc.
Destroyed of the destroyer - The Jews suppose that God employed destroying angels to punish those rebellious Israelites; they were five in number, and one of them they call Meshachith , the destroyer; which appears to be another name for Samael, the angel of death, to whose influence they attribute all deaths which are not uncommon or violent. Those who die violent deaths, or deaths that are not in the common manner of men, are considered as perishing by immediate judgments from God.
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