Exodus 34:28

34:28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; ¹  he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. ² 

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 ³  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.

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, ⁴  for he ⁵  had said he would destroy you.

Deuteronomy 10:10

10:10 As for me, I stayed at the mountain as I did the first time, forty days and nights. The Lord listened to me that time as well and decided not to destroy you.

Deuteronomy 10:1

The Opportunity to Begin Again

10:1 At that same time the Lord said to me, “Carve out for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones and come up the mountain to me; also make for yourself a wooden ark. ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 19:8

19:8 If the Lord your God enlarges your borders as he promised your ancestors ⁷  and gives you all the land he pledged to them, ⁸ 

Matthew 4:2

4:2 After he fasted forty days and forty nights he was famished. ⁹ 

Mark 1:13

1:13 He was in the wilderness forty days, ¹⁰  enduring temptations from Satan. He ¹¹  was with wild animals, and angels were ministering to his needs. ¹² 

Luke 4:2

4:2 where for forty days he endured temptations ¹³  from the devil. He ¹⁴  ate nothing ¹⁵  during those days, and when they were completed, ¹⁶  he was famished.

¹ tn These too are adverbial in relation to the main clause, telling how long Moses was with Yahweh on the mountain.

² tn Heb “the ten words,” though “commandments” is traditional.

³ tn Heb “in the mountain.” The demonstrative pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁴ tn The Hebrew text includes “when I prostrated myself.” Since this is redundant, it has been left untranslated.

⁵ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 9:3.

⁶ tn Or “chest” (so NIV, CEV); NLT “sacred chest”; TEV “wooden box.” This chest was made of acacia wood; it is later known as the ark of the covenant.

⁷ tn Heb “fathers.”

⁸ tn Heb “he said to give to your ancestors.” The pronoun has been used in the translation instead for stylistic reasons.

⁹ tn Grk “and having fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward he was hungry.”

¹⁰ 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).

¹¹ tn Grk “And he.”

¹² tn Grk “were serving him,” “were ministering to him.”

¹³ 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.

¹⁴ tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

¹⁵ 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.

¹⁶ tn The Greek word here is συντελεσθείσων (suntelesqeiswn) from the verb συντελέω (suntelew).