Numbers 25:9

And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.

Those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. Only 23,000 perished (1 Corinthians 10:8) from pestilence. Moses includes in his record those who were executed by the judges. Like the amputation of a diseased limb, which, though a severe, is sometimes a necessary measure, to prevent the gangrene infecting the whole body, so the slaughter of the licentious idolaters, though an extreme, was a wise and seasonable remedy, in order to prevent the contagion of their corrupt manners From demoralizing the camp (see the notes at Deuteronomy 4:3).