Exodus 24:18

24:18 Moses went into the cloud when he went up ¹  the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. ² 

Exodus 34:28

34:28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; ³  he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 9:11

9:11 Now at the end of the forty days and nights the Lord presented me with the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.

Deuteronomy 9:18

9:18 Then I again fell down before the Lord for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the Lord as to enrage him.

Deuteronomy 9:25

Moses’ Plea on Behalf of the Lord’s Reputation

9:25 I lay flat on the ground before the Lord for forty days and nights, ⁵  for he ⁶  had said he would destroy you.

Deuteronomy 9:1

Theological Justification of the Conquest

9:1 Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan so you can dispossess the nations there, people greater and stronger than you who live in large cities with extremely high fortifications. ⁷ 

Deuteronomy 19:8

19:8 If the Lord your God enlarges your borders as he promised your ancestors ⁸  and gives you all the land he pledged to them, ⁹ 

¹ tn The verb is a preterite with vav (ו) consecutive; here, the second clause, is subordinated to the first preterite, because it seems that the entering into the cloud is the dominant point in this section of the chapter.

² sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 750) offers this description of some of the mystery involved in Moses’ ascending into the cloud: Moses ascended into the presence of God, but remained on earth. He did not rise to heaven – the ground remained firmly under his feet. But he clearly was brought into God’s presence; he was like a heavenly servant before God’s throne, like the angels, and he consumed neither bread nor water. The purpose of his being there was to become familiar with all God’s demands and purposes. He would receive the tablets of stone and all the instructions for the tabernacle that was to be built (beginning in chap. 25). He would not descend until the sin of the golden calf.

³ tn These too are adverbial in relation to the main clause, telling how long Moses was with Yahweh on the mountain.

⁴ tn Heb “the ten words,” though “commandments” is traditional.

⁵ tn The Hebrew text includes “when I prostrated myself.” Since this is redundant, it has been left untranslated.

⁶ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 9:3.

⁷ tn Heb “fortified to the heavens” (so NRSV); NLT “cities with walls that reach to the sky.” This is hyperbole.

⁸ tn Heb “fathers.”

⁹ tn Heb “he said to give to your ancestors.” The pronoun has been used in the translation instead for stylistic reasons.