Okay, here's a Bible question for you: What is the significance of the number "forty" in the Bible? It appears many, many times; I believe over one hundred times.

Possibly the most well known use is in the story of the flood in which it rained for forty days and forty nights. This morning I was reading in 1 Kings about Elijah. If you recall when Jezebel was after him he sat under a juniper and asked the Lord to take his life. Then he was visited twice by an angel and told to arise and eat. The second time he ate the meal sustained him for forty days and forty nights.

Then of course our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil for forty days.

Unfortunately I do not have a copy of a book on manners and customs of the Bible in my library. Perhaps I ought to buy one. However if anyone has any insight on this I would appreciate you sharing that knowledge with me and anyone else who may read.

In Christ,
George

40 years is the life of a generation. It may be good or bad.

In the case of the temptations, it is probable that those 40 days corresponded (on the day=year basis) to the 40 years of Israel in the wilderness.

Num 14:33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.

Num 32:13 And the LORD'S anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, that had done evil in the sight of the LORD, was consumed.

Jdg 3:11 And the land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

Jdg 5:31 So let all thine enemies perish, O LORD: but [let] them that love him [be] as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years.

Jdg 8:28 Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon.

Jdg 13:1 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

2Sa 5:4 David [was] thirty years old when he began to reign, [and] he reigned forty years.

Psa 95:10 Forty years long was I grieved with [this] generation, and said, It [is] a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:

Eze 29:11 No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.

Act 7:30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.

36 He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

Hbr 3:9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.

3:17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? [was it] not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

Add to that list the 40 years that the generation that rejected their Messiah lived before the destruction.

This post was last modified: Fri Jul 04, 2008 03:29 PM by Ebenezer.

Thank you for that response Brother. Now I have a better understanding of some things in the Bible and I like that. I shared your answer with some friends yesterday. They also appreciated the additional knowledge of God's Word.

In Christ,
George

Bro George,
In a different article (I think it may be from Bullinger's companion bible), the number "40", is said to signify a complete time of testing; be it days, weeks, months, or years. A biblical generation can be from 40 to 70 years. Notice Moses at 40, leaves Egypt, and 40 years later returns. There are others that can be researched in various books on numerology, but this is a smattering of what I have.