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

I lay flat on the ground before the Lord for forty days and nights, ¹  for he ²  had said he would destroy you.

Your clothing did not wear out nor did your feet swell all these forty years.

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 ¹  forty days and nights, eating and drinking nothing.

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.

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.

The judge ¹  may sentence him to forty blows, ²  but no more. If he is struck with more than these, you might view your fellow Israelite ³  with contempt.

I have led you through the desert for forty years. Your clothing has not worn out ¹  nor have your sandals ²  deteriorated.

However, it was not until ¹  the first day of the eleventh month ²  of the fortieth year ³  that Moses addressed the Israelites just as ⁴  the Lord had instructed him to do.

All along the way I, the Lord your God, ¹  have blessed your every effort. ²  I have ³  been attentive to ⁴  your travels through this great wasteland. These forty years I have ⁵  been with you; you have lacked for nothing.’”

Remember the whole way by which he ¹  has brought you these forty years through the desert ²  so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not.