אַרְבָּעִים

From the study of Deuteronomy 9:9

Range of meaning

"Forty days and forty nights" is a fixed phrase. Forty is Israel's typical number for a full period of testing, judgment or change: the flood rains (Gen 7:4, 12), the scouting of Canaan (Num 13:25) and the wilderness years (Deut 8:2).

Against the English

All versions translate it the same way. Whether it is meant as an exact count or a symbolic number is not decided by the words themselves.

Used elsewhere in the period

Exod 24:18 (first ascent); Exod 34:28 and Deut 9:18, 25; 10:10 (second period). Elijah travels forty days and nights to Horeb without food after one meal (1 Kgs 19:8). Jesus fasts forty days and nights in the wilderness (Matt 4:2), a deliberate echo of Moses.

From the study of Exodus 16:35

Range of meaning

Literally 'forty year'. Forty is a real number, and it is also the Bible's usual span for a generation or a full period of testing or rule (Num 14:33–34; Judg 3:11; 1 Sam 4:18; 2 Sam 5:4).

Against the English

All English versions say 'forty years', which is correct. A reader may assume an exact count. The text's own dates show the figure is rounded.

Used elsewhere in the period

Manna began on about the 15th of the second month after the Exodus (Exod 16:1). It stopped the day after Passover in the fortieth year, when Israel ate the produce of Canaan at Gilgal (Josh 5:10–12; compare Deut 1:3). That is forty years less about a month. Rabbinic interpretation noticed this: the Mekhilta and Talmud discuss the missing thirty days (Kiddushin 38a).

From the study of Genesis 7:4

Range of meaning

'Forty days and forty nights': a set phrase for a full, unbroken period. Forty works as a round number for a complete span, a generation, or a time of testing and transition.

Against the English

All the major versions translate it the same way. The risk lies in how the number is remembered, not in the translation (see popular_drift).

Used elsewhere in the period

Exod 24:18; 34:28 and Deut 9:9–18: Moses on the mountain 'forty days and forty nights'. 1 Kgs 19:8: Elijah's journey to Horeb. Israel's forty years in the wilderness (Num 14:33–34). Jonah 3:4: 'forty days and Nineveh will be overturned'. Later, Matt 4:2: Jesus fasting 'forty days and forty nights'. By contrast, the Mesopotamian flood stories have a much shorter storm: seven days and seven nights in Atrahasis and in the Sumerian Ziusudra story, six days and seven nights in Gilgamesh XI.