"... The number forty is significant in the Bible: the rains of the Flood in Genesis occurred for forty days and forty nights (Genesis 7:4, 12); Moses met twice with the Lord on the mountain for forty days and forty nights (Exodus 24:18; 34:28; Deuteronomy 9:9, 11, 18, 25, 10:10); the spies of Israel spent forty days spying out the land of Canaan (Numbers 13:25); Israel spent forty years in the wilderness until they came to the land of Canaan (Exodus 16:35; Deuteronomy 2:7; 8:2, 4; 29:5; Nehemiah 9:21; Psalm 95:10; Amos 2:10); the forty years in the wilderness served as punishment for their lack of faith in response to the spies (Numbers 14:33–34; Joshua 5:6; Psalm 95:10); Israel spent forty years under the rule of the Philistines (Judges 13:1); Elijah was provided for in his flight from Jezebel forty days and forty nights (1 Kings 19:8); Jonah prophesied that in forty days Nineveh would be overthrown (Jonah 3:4); and Ezekiel enacted a prophetic sign of Jerusalem’s downfall by laying on his side forty days, a day for each year (Ezekiel 4:6). All of these reveal an importance of the number forty in Israel’s history. (Jeremias, New Testament Theology, observes that “forty is a common symbolic number, which denotes times of oppression and of curse.”) ..."