“forty days and forty nights”

Question

In Exodus 24:18 (NASB)

Then Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.

According to those who support numerology, what significance does 40 have in this passage?

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Note that there's another question considering this passage but totally different, and that this kind of questions was discussed in Meta.

Answer 1

Ten is completeness (ten fingers, and the decimal system of numbers); four is the earth (north, south, east and west) so forty denotes something that is (usually) a duration on earth that is complete in itself and an extension, or a repetition, to that duration would achieve no more.

एक परीक्षण (यीशु के प्रलोभन) की स्थिति में चालीस दिनों और रातों से परे परीक्षण का लंबा होना, पहले से ही साबित होने से ज्यादा कुछ नहीं साबित होगा: भगवान के प्रति उनकी आस्था, चरम सीमा तक परीक्षण की गई।

इसे न तो बढ़ाया जाना चाहिए और न ही दोहराया जाना चाहिए ।

मूसा की स्थिति में, यह अवधि तब तक थी जब तक कि भगवान ने उसे प्रकट करने की इच्छा व्यक्त की थी। लम्बा समय व्यर्थ होगा। समय की अवधि, और अलौकिक संरक्षण (न तो भोजन और न ही पानी) इंगित करता है कि कुछ हासिल किया गया था, पूरी तरह से, पृथ्वी पर, और यह कि इसे न तो बढ़ाया जाना चाहिए और न ही दोहराया जाना चाहिए ।

(Those who have attempted to write further - in effect, alternative - "scripture", pretending to some sort of repetition of Moses' experiences should have taken note of what the forty number indicates.)

Answer 2

A duration of 40 units is used often in the Bible, and has a strong association with periods of testing, trial, probation, or preparation. https://www.gotquestions.org/40-days-Bible.html

FWIW, my best guess is this is a trope used to designate a significant period, and then as mentioned has overtones related to spiritual preparation and so on. So when Jesus goes into the desert for 40 days, this immediately brings to mind similar periods of testing or preparation in the mind of a typical reader familiar with the Old Testament, while also meaning he was there for a significant number of days.