Joshua 5:6

5:6 Indeed, for forty years the Israelites traveled through the desert until all the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt, the ones who had disobeyed the Lord, died off. ¹  For the Lord had sworn a solemn oath to them that he would not let them see the land he had sworn on oath to give them, ²  a land rich in ³  milk and honey.

Numbers 14:33-34

14:33 and your children will wander ⁴  in the wilderness forty years and suffer for your unfaithfulness, ⁵  until your dead bodies lie finished ⁶  in the wilderness. 14:34 According to the number of the days you have investigated this land, forty days – one day for a year – you will suffer for ⁷  your iniquities, forty years, and you will know what it means to thwart me. ⁸ 

Nehemiah 9:12-21

9:12 You guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and with a pillar of fire by night to illumine for them the path they were to travel.

9:13 “You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You provided them with just judgments, true laws, and good statutes and commandments. 9:14 You made known to them your holy Sabbath; you issued commandments, statutes, and law to them through ⁹  Moses your servant. 9:15 You provided bread from heaven for them in their time of hunger, and you brought forth water from the rock for them in their time of thirst. You told them to enter in order to possess the land that you had sworn ¹⁰  to give them.

9:16 “But they – our ancestors ¹¹  – behaved presumptuously; they rebelled ¹²  and did not obey your commandments. 9:17 They refused to obey and did not recall your miracles that you had performed among them. Instead, they rebelled and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt. ¹³  But you are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in your loyal love. ¹⁴  You did not abandon them, 9:18 even when they made a cast image of a calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up from Egypt,’ or when they committed atrocious ¹⁵  blasphemies.

9:19 “Due to your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert. The pillar of cloud did not stop guiding them in the path by day, ¹⁶  nor did the pillar of fire stop illuminating for them by night the path on which they should travel. 9:20 You imparted your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths; you provided water for their thirst. 9:21 For forty years you sustained them. Even in the desert they never lacked anything. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

Psalms 95:9-10

95:9 where your ancestors challenged my authority, ¹⁷ 

and tried my patience, even though they had seen my work.

95:10 For forty years I was continually disgusted ¹⁸  with that generation,

and I said, ‘These people desire to go astray; ¹⁹ 

they do not obey my commands.’ ²⁰ 

Acts 13:17-18

13:17 The God of this people Israel ²¹  chose our ancestors ²²  and made the people great ²³  during their stay as foreigners ²⁴  in the country ²⁵  of Egypt, and with uplifted arm ²⁶  he led them out of it. 13:18 For ²⁷  a period of about forty years he put up with ²⁸  them in the wilderness. ²⁹ 

Hebrews 3:17

3:17 And against whom was God ³⁰  provoked for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness? ³¹ 

[5:6]  ¹ tn Heb “all the nation, the men of war who went out from Egypt, who did not listen to the voice of the Lord, came to an end.”

[5:6]  ² tn Some Hebrew mss, as well as the Syriac version, support this reading. Most ancient witnesses read “us.”

[5:6]  ³ tn Heb “flowing with.”

[14:33]  ⁴ tn The word is “shepherds.” It means that the people would be wilderness nomads, grazing their flock on available land.

[14:33]  ⁵ tn Heb “you shall bear your whoredoms.” The imagery of prostitution is used throughout the Bible to reflect spiritual unfaithfulness, leaving the covenant relationship and following after false gods. Here it is used generally for their rebellion in the wilderness, but not for following other gods.

[14:33]  ⁶ tn The infinitive is from תָּמַם (tamam), which means “to be complete.” The word is often used to express completeness in a good sense – whole, blameless, or the like. Here and in v. 35 it seems to mean “until your deaths have been completed.” See also Gen 47:15; Deut 2:15.

[14:34]  ⁷ tn Heb “you shall bear.”

[14:34]  ⁸ tn The phrase refers to the consequences of open hostility to God, or perhaps abandonment of God. The noun תְּנוּאָה (tÿnu’ah) occurs in Job 33:10 (perhaps). The related verb occurs in Num 30:6 HT (30:5 ET) and 32:7 with the sense of “disallow, discourage.” The sense of the expression adopted in this translation comes from the meticulous study of R. Loewe, “Divine Frustration Exegetically Frustrated,” Words and Meanings, 137-58.

[9:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “by the hand of.”

[9:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “had lifted your hand.”

[9:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and our fathers.” The vav is explicative.

[9:16]  ¹² tn Heb “they stiffened their neck” (so also in the following verse).

[9:17]  ¹³ tc The present translation follows a few medieval Hebrew MSS and the LXX in reading בְּמִצְרָיִם (bÿmitsrayim, “in Egypt”; so also NAB, NASB, NRSV, TEV, NLT) rather than the MT reading בְּמִרְיָם (bÿmiryam, “in their rebellion”).

[9:17]  ¹⁴ tc The translation follows the Qere reading חֶסֶד (khesed, “loyal love”) rather than the Kethib reading וְחֶסֶד (vÿkhesed, “and loyal love”) of the MT.

[9:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “great.”

[9:19]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “did not turn from them by day to guide them in the path.”

[95:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “where your fathers tested me.”

[95:10]  ¹⁸ 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.

[95:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “a people, wanderers of heart [are] they.”

[95:10]  ²⁰ 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.

[13:17]  ²¹ tn Or “people of Israel.”

[13:17]  ²² tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[13:17]  ²³ tn That is, in both numbers and in power. The implication of greatness in both numbers and in power is found in BDAG 1046 s.v. ὑψόω 2.

[13:17]  ²⁴ tn Or “as resident aliens.”

[13:17]  ²⁵ tn Or “land.”

[13:17]  ²⁶ sn Here uplifted arm is a metaphor for God’s power by which he delivered the Israelites from Egypt. See Exod 6:1, 6; 32:11; Deut 3:24; 4:34; Ps 136:11-12.

[13:18]  ²⁷ tn Grk “And for.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[13:18]  ²⁸ tn For this verb, see BDAG 1017 s.v. τροποφορέω (cf. also Deut 1:31; Exod 16:35; Num 14:34).

[13:18]  ²⁹ tn Or “desert.”

[3:17]  ³⁰ tn Grk “he”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.

[3:17]  ³¹ sn An allusion to God’s judgment pronounced in Num 14:29, 32.