Psalms 95:10

95:10 For forty years I was continually disgusted ¹  with that generation,

and I said, ‘These people desire to go astray; ² 

they do not obey my commands.’ ³ 

Hebrews 3:9

3:9 “There your fathers tested me and tried me, ⁴  and they saw my works for forty years.

Hebrews 3:15-17

3:15 As it says, ⁵  “Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! ⁶  Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” ⁷  3:16 For which ones heard and rebelled? Was it not all who came out of Egypt under Moses’ leadership? ⁸  3:17 And against whom was God ⁹  provoked for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁰ 

¹ tn The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite or an imperfect. If the latter, it emphasizes the ongoing nature of the condition in the past. The translation reflects this interpretation of the verbal form.

² tn Heb “a people, wanderers of heart [are] they.”

³ tn Heb “and they do not know my ways.” In this context the Lord’s “ways” are his commands, viewed as a pathway from which his people, likened to wayward sheep (see v. 7), wander.

⁴ tn Grk “tested me by trial.”

⁵ tn Grk “while it is said.”

⁶ tn Grk “today if you hear his voice.”

⁷ sn A quotation from Ps 95:7b-8.

⁸ tn Grk “through Moses.”

⁹ tn Grk “he”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.

¹⁰ sn An allusion to God’s judgment pronounced in Num 14:29, 32.