Deuteronomy 1:3

1:3 However, it was not until ¹  the first day of the eleventh month ²  of the fortieth year ³  that Moses addressed the Israelites just as ⁴  the Lord had instructed him to do.

Deuteronomy 8:2

8:2 Remember the whole way by which he ⁵  has brought you these forty years through the desert ⁶  so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not.

¹ tn Heb “in” or “on.” Here there is a contrast between the ordinary time of eleven days (v. 2) and the actual time of forty years, so “not until” brings out that vast disparity.

² sn The eleventh month is Shebat in the Hebrew calendar, January/February in the modern (Gregorian) calendar.

³ sn The fortieth year would be 1406 b.c. according to the “early” date of the exodus. See E. H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests, 66-75.

⁴ tn Heb “according to all which.”

⁵ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁶ tn Or “wilderness” (so KJV, NRSV, NLT); likewise in v. 15.