Biblical 40 days References
The concept of 40 days is a very powerful one in scriptures. The bible contains many references to 40 days, and from an examination of these verses we see that it takes 40 days to accomplish purification, to prepare oneself for a holy task, to accomplish true repentance which will turn away a negative decree and to gain true understanding.
Below are verses from the Hebrew bible regarding the concept of 40 days.
Genesis (Bereishit) 7:4
For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.
Genesis (Bereishit) 7:12
The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
Genesis (Bereishit) 7:17
Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth.
Genesis (Bereishit) 8:6
Then it came about at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made;
Genesis (Bereishit) 50:3
Now forty days were required for it, for such is the period required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.
Exodus (Shemot) 24:18
Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Exodus (Shemot) 34:28
So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
Numbers (Bamidbar) 13:25
When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days,
Deuteronomy (Devarim) 9:9
When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord had made with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water.
Deuteronomy (Devarim) 9:11
It came about at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.
Deuteronomy (Devarim) 9:18
I fell down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger.
Deuteronomy (Devarim) 9:25
So I fell down before the Lord the forty days and nights, which I did because the Lord had said He would destroy you.
Deuteronomy (Devarim) 10:10
I, moreover, stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights like the first time, and the Lord listened to me that time also; the Lord was not willing to destroy you.
1 Samuel 17:16
The Philistine came forward morning and evening for forty days and took his stand.
Kings 1 (Melachim 1) 19:8
So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Ezekiel (Yechezkiel) 4:6
When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for each year.
Jonah 3:4
Then Jonah began to go through the city one day's walk; and he cried out and said, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown."
