Forty

How Nave’s arranged it

• Remarkable coincidences in the number
• DAYS
• Of rain, at the time of the floodGenesis 7:17
• Of flood, before sending forth the ravenGenesis 8:6
• For embalmingGenesis 50:3
• Of fasting
• By MosesExodus 24:18Exodus 34:28Deuteronomy 9:9Deuteronomy 9:25
• By Elijah1 Kings 19:8
• By spies in the land of promiseNumbers 13:25
• Of probation, given to the NinevitesJonah 3:4
• By JesusMatthew 4:2
• Christ's stay after the resurrectionActs 1:3

The passages, in Bible order (22)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 16 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Genesis 7:17

   For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 7:171 voice

   “The prevalence of the waters. The forty days are now completed. And at the end of this period the ark had been afloat for a long time. It was drifted on the waters in the direction in which they were flowing, and toward what was formerly the higher ground. Gen 7:19 Upon the land. - The land is to be understood of the portion of the earth’s surface known to man. This, with an unknown margin beyond it, was covered with the waters. But this is all that Scripture warrants us to assert.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 7:17→

   Verse page →Original language →

2. Genesis 8:6

   After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark

   ›Commentary on Genesis 8:61 voice

   “And it came to pass at the end of forty days,.... From the appearance of the mountains, that is, from the first day of the tenth month, to forty days after; and being ended, this must be the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the month Ab, which answers to July and August; and according to Bishop Usher (k) it was Friday the twenty eighth of August: that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made; of which See Gill on Gen 6:16. (k) Ut supra. (Annales Vet. Test. p. 4.)

   Everything gathered on Genesis 8:6→

   Verse page →Original language →

3. Genesis 50:3

   taking the forty days required to complete the embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 50:31 voice

   “Forty days - The body it appears required this number of days to complete the process of embalming; afterwards it lay in natron thirty days more, making in the whole seventy days, according to the preceding accounts, during which the mourning was continued.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 50:3→

   Verse page →Original language →

4. Exodus 16:35

   The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land where they could settle; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.

   ›Commentary on Exodus 16:351 voice

   “Did eat manna forty years - This does not necessarily imply that the Israelites were fed exclusively on manna, or that the supply was continuous during forty years: but that whenever it might be needed, owing to the total or partial failure of other food, it was given until they entered the promised land.

   Everything gathered on Exodus 16:35→

   Verse page →Original language →

5. Exodus 24:18

   Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

   ›Commentary on Exodus 24:182 voices

   “Divine grace animated and supported him to enter with holy boldness. Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights--The six days spent in waiting are not included. During that protracted period he was miraculously supported (De 9:9), on a peak scarcely thirty paces in compass.

   “Forty days and forty nights - During the whole of this time he neither ate bread nor drank water; see Exo 34:28; Deu 9:9. Both his body and soul were so sustained by the invigorating presence of God, that he needed no earthly support, and this may be the simple reason why he took none. Elijah fasted forty days and forty nights, sustained by the same influence, 1Ki 19:8; as did likewise our blessed Lord, when he was about to commence the public ministry of his own Gospel, Mat 4:2.

   Everything gathered on Exodus 24:18→

   Verse page →Original language →

6. Exodus 34:28

   So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

   Verse page →Original language →

7. Numbers 13:25

   After forty days the men returned from spying out the land,

   ›Commentary on Numbers 13:251 voice

   “And they returned from searching the land after forty days. The Targum of Jonathan adds, on the eighth day of the month Ab, which answers to part of July and part of August; so that this must be towards the latter end of July: some Jewish writers (k) say it was the ninth of Ab; hence the tradition, that it was decreed on the ninth of Ab concerning their fathers, that they should not enter into the land (l). (k) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 8. p. 24. (l) Misn. Taanith, c. 4. sect. 7.

   Everything gathered on Numbers 13:25→

   Verse page →Original language →

8. Numbers 14:34

   In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years—a year for each day—and you will experience My alienation.

   ›Commentary on Numbers 14:341 voice

   “After the number of the days - The spies were forty days in searching the land, and the people who rebelled on their evil report are condemned to wander forty years in the wilderness! Now let them make them a captain and go back to Egypt if they can. God had so hedged them about with his power and providence that they could neither go back to Egypt nor get forward to the promised land! God has provided innumerable spiritual blessings for mankind, but in the pursuit of earthly good they lose them, and often lose the others also!

   Everything gathered on Numbers 14:34→

   Verse page →Original language →

9. Deuteronomy 9:9

   When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.

   ›Commentary on Deuteronomy 9:91 voice

   Every form of nourishment is called "bread" in the Scriptures. This is clear from what is written concerning Moses: for forty days he neither ate "bread" nor drank water. The word that nourishes is multidimensional and varied. Not everyone can receive the solid and strong nourishment of God's teachings. Therefore, wishing to give an athlete's nourishment suitable to the more perfect, [Christ] says, "The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

   Everything gathered on Deuteronomy 9:9→

   Verse page →Original language →

10. Deuteronomy 9:25

    So I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said He would destroy you.

    ›Commentary on Deuteronomy 9:252 voices

    “Thus I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first,.... Which Jarchi says are the selfsame said above, Deu 9:18, but doubled or repeated, because of the order of his prayer.

    “But on a comparison of this passage with Nu 14:5, the subject and language of this prayer show that only the second act of intercession (De 9:18) is now described in fuller detail.

    Everything gathered on Deuteronomy 9:25→

    Verse page →Original language →

11. Deuteronomy 25:3

    He may receive no more than forty lashes, lest your brother be beaten any more than that and be degraded in your sight.

    ›Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:31 voice

    “The Jews to keep within the letter of the law fixed 39 stripes as the maximum (compare the marginal reference.). Forty signifies the full measure of judgment (compare Gen 7:12; Num 14:33-34); but the son of Israel was not to be lashed like a slave at the mercy of another. The judge was always to be present to see that the Law in this particular was not overpassed.

    Everything gathered on Deuteronomy 25:3→

    Verse page →Original language →

12. Judges 3:11

    So the land had rest for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.

    ›Commentary on Judges 3:112 voices

    “And the land had rest forty years,.... As it should seem from the time of this deliverance; though, according to Ben Gersom and Abarbinel, the eight years' servitude are to be included in them; and Bishop Usher (r) reckons these forty years from the rest first settled in the land by Joshua; but the former sense seems best: and Othniel the son of Kenaz died: not at the end of the forty years; it is not likely he should live so long, but when he died is not certain; Eusebius (s) says he judged Israel fifty years. (r) Anual. Vet.

    “The land - means here, as in Jdg 1:2, not the whole land of Canaan, but the part concerned, probably the land of the tribe of Judah. Forty years, here and elsewhere, is (like fourscore years, Jdg 3:30) a round number, perhaps equivalent to a generation.

    Everything gathered on Judges 3:11→

    Verse page →Original language →

13. Judges 5:31

    So may all Your enemies perish, O LORD! But may those who love You shine like the sun at its brightest.” And the land had rest for forty years.

    ›Commentary on Judges 5:311 voice

    “A most striking conclusion, in which the spiritual truth, which the whole narrative is intended to convey, comes out. The enemies of the Lord will perish like the host of Sisera, and all their hopes will end, like those of Sisera’s mother, in bitter disappointment and shame; but all that love our Lord Jesus Christ shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Compare Mat 13:43; Dan 12:3.

    Everything gathered on Judges 5:31→

    Verse page →Original language →

14. Judges 8:28

    In this way Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. So the land had rest for forty years in the days of Gideon,

    ›Commentary on Judges 8:282 voices

    “Lifted up their head - That is, recovered not their former strength or courage, so as to conquer or oppress others. Forty years - To the fortieth year, from the beginning of the Midianitish oppression.

    “Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel--This invasion of the Arab hordes into Canaan was as alarming and desolating as the irruption of the Huns into Europe. It was the severest scourge ever inflicted upon Israel; and both it and the deliverance under Gideon lived for centuries in the minds of the people (Ps 83:11).

    Everything gathered on Judges 8:28→

    Verse page →Original language →

15. 1 Kings 19:8

    So he got up and ate and drank. And strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

    ›Commentary on 1 Kings 19:82 voices

    “And went - He wandered hither and thither for forty days, 'till at last he came to Horeb, which in the direct road was not above three or four days journey.

    “Forty days and forty nights - So he fasted just the same time as Moses did at Horeb, and as Christ did in the wilderness.

    Everything gathered on 1 Kings 19:8→

    Verse page →Original language →

16. Ezekiel 4:6

    When you have completed these days, lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have assigned to you 40 days, a day for each year.

    ›Commentary on Ezekiel 4:62 voices

    “Forty days - Probably from Josiah's renewing the covenant, until the destruction of the temple, during which time God deferred to punish, expecting whether they would keep their covenant, or retain their idolatries, which latter they did for thirteen years of Josiah's reign, for eleven of Jehoiakim's, and eleven of Zedekiah's reign, and five of his captivity, which amount to just forty years.

    “Forty days - Reckon, says Archbishop Newcome, near fifteen years and six months in the reign of Manasseh, two years in that of Amon, three months in that of Jehoahaz, eleven years in that of Jehoiakim, three months and ten days in that of Jehoiachin, and eleven years in that of Zedekiah; and there arises a period of forty years, during which gross idolatry was practiced in the kingdom of Judah. Forty days may have been employed in spoiling and desolating the city and the temple.

    Everything gathered on Ezekiel 4:6→

    Verse page →Original language →