Unlike 50, which I have not included because, other than the Jubilee and the number of days between Pesach and Shavu'ot, there is absolutely nothing of any significance in the number, forty merits a page of its own. Though for one key topic, that of the conflict between "ARAVIM and ARBA'IM", it needs to be followed in the text, and anyway there is no resolution.
Forty years was the period of the Flood, in one of the two versions.
Forty was the first number with which Av-Raham bartered for the souls of Sedom and Amorah.
Yistchak was forty years old when he was first married (Genesis 25:20)
Esav likewise (Genesis 26:34)
When Ya'akov died in Mitsrayim, the Egyptians mourned for forty days, and spent the time embalming his body (Genesis 50:3). This is worth noting as a piece of sociology, simply because the Hebrew period of mourning was always Sheloshim, thirty day.
Moshe spent forty days and nights on Mount Sinai, on two separate occasions (Exodus 24:18, 34:1-28), receiving the laws.
Moshe sent spies to investigate the land of Kena'an, "promised" to the Beney Yisra-El as an inheritance; their expedition required forty days (Numbers 13:25, 14:34), and led to the Beney Yisra-El spending forty years wandering somewhat aimlessly through the wilderness, simply waiting for everyone except Yehoshu'a and Kalev to die.
Judges 13:1 tells how "the Beney Yisra-El again did that which was evil in the sight of YHVH; and YHVH delivered them into the hand of the Plishtim for forty years"; a prelude to the epoch of Shimshon (Samson).
Forty days and nights were spent by Eli-Yahu (Elijah), who is another version of the Risen Lord, in the wilderness; and Eli-Yahu is specifically connected with Giv-Yah (Gibeah) which plays a prominent role throughout this tale.
The prophet Yonah warned warned the people of Nin'veh that destruction would come in forty days if they did not repent (Yonah 3:4). To his chagrin and disappointment, they did.
The prophet Ezekiel lay on his right side for forty days to symbolise the sins of Yehudah (Ezekiel 4:6)
Jesus too spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness, and Muhammad's wanderings in the desert before the first revelation are equivalent as well. It describes a period of abstinence, silence, fasting, a hermetic or monastic period, often but not always associated with the vow of the Nazir, invariably a period of preparation for a major event.
And why so many 40s? In the Egyptian world it wasn't really a number at all, but a kind of metaphor. To say 40 was to infer "an unknown number", "however long it took", "however many there were". A myriad might be the nearest English equivalent.
Copyright © 2015 David Prashker
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The Argaman Press
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