Numerology: What special significance has the number 40? In the Bible and in the Hebrew language the number stands for test and preparation.

  • A woman is pregnant 40 weeks before delivery.
  • Forty days and forty nights describes the period for which rain fell during Noah’s flood.
  • Joshua’s army at the Battle of Jericho counted 40,000 men.
  • The prophet Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments.
  • The Hebrews were in the wilderness for 40 years.
  • There is a 40 day period of purification after a baby is born before the woman could return to the temple.
  • Jesus Christ spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting.
  • It was 40 days before the assension of Christ into Heaven after the crucifixion.
  • Lent consists of the 40 days preceding Easter.
  • There were 40 thieves in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves from Thousand and One Nights.
  • The usual number of days for mourning in Muslim cultures is 40 days.
  • A perfect score on a test is 4.0.
  • In English, forty is the only number whose constituent letters appear in alphabetical order.
  • The ghosts of the dead hang around the site of their death, according to Russian belief, for 40 days.
  • "Life begins at forty".
  • "Forty winks", means a short sleep.
  • "40 acres and a mule" is the colloquial term for compensation that was to be awarded to freed American slaves after the Civil War.
  • There are 40 hours in a regular work week (for Americans).
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