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 9:9

9:9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained there ⁵  forty days and nights, eating and drinking nothing.

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.

Matthew 4:2

4:2 After he fasted forty days and forty nights he was famished. ⁶ 

Mark 1:13

1:13 He was in the wilderness forty days, ⁷  enduring temptations from Satan. He ⁸  was with wild animals, and angels were ministering to his needs. ⁹ 

Luke 4:2

4:2 where for forty days he endured temptations ¹⁰  from the devil. He ¹¹  ate nothing ¹²  during those days, and when they were completed, ¹³  he was famished.

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 Heb “in the mountain.” The demonstrative pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁶ tn Grk “and having fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward he was hungry.”

⁷ sn The forty days may allude to the experience of Moses (Exod 34:28), Elijah (1 Kgs 19:8, 15), or David and Goliath (1 Sam 17:16).

⁸ tn Grk “And he.”

⁹ tn Grk “were serving him,” “were ministering to him.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “in the desert, for forty days being tempted.” The participle πειραζόμενος (peirazomeno") has been translated as an adverbial clause in English to avoid a run-on sentence with a second “and.” Here the present participle suggests a period of forty days of testing. Three samples of the end of the testing are given in the following verses.

¹¹ tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

¹² sn The reference to Jesus eating nothing could well be an idiom meaning that he ate only what the desert provided; see Exod 34:28. A desert fast simply meant eating only what one could obtain in the desert. The parallel in Matt 4:2 speaks only of Jesus fasting.

¹³ tn The Greek word here is συντελεσθείσων (suntelesqeiswn) from the verb συντελέω (suntelew).