Thematic Bible: Periods and numbers


Thematic Bible



I came to the exiles at Tel Abib, who lived by the Kebar River. I sat dumbfounded among them there, where they were living, for seven days.

God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he ceased all the work that he had been doing in creation.

For in seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the ground every living thing that I have made."

After we located the disciples, we stayed there seven days. They repeatedly told Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem.

We sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and within five days we came to the others in Troas, where we stayed for seven days.

The priest who succeeds him from his sons, when he first comes to the tent of meeting to minister in the Holy Place, is to wear them for seven days.

Seven full days passed after the Lord struck the Nile.

The elders of Jabesh said to him, "Leave us alone for seven days so that we can send messengers throughout the territory of Israel. If there is no one who can deliver us, we will come out voluntarily to you."

He waited for seven days, the time period indicated by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the army began to abandon Saul.

There we found some brothers and were invited to stay with them seven days. And in this way we came to Rome.


For forty years I was continually disgusted with that generation, and I said, 'These people desire to go astray; they do not obey my commands.'

and your children will wander in the wilderness forty years and suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your dead bodies lie finished in the wilderness.

Now the Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was inhabited; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

The land had rest for forty years; then Othniel son of Kenaz died.

No human foot will pass through it, and no animal's foot will pass through it; it will be uninhabited for forty years.



Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the whole land of Egypt.

Then the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had predicted. There was famine in all the other lands, but throughout the land of Egypt there was food.

As for the king seeing a holy sentinel coming down from heaven and saying, 'Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave its taproot in the ground, with a band of iron and bronze around it, surrounded by the grass of the field. Let it become damp with the dew of the sky, and let it live with the wild animals, until seven periods of time go by for him' --


So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Moses went into the cloud when he went up the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.


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


This whole area will become a desolate wasteland. These nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years.'


Meanwhile for forty days the Philistine approached every morning and evening and took his position.


The Lord said to Moses, "Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know are elders of the people and officials over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting; let them take their position there with you.




They returned from investigating the land after forty days.


They took forty days, for that is the full time needed for embalming. The Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.


So he got up and ate and drank. That meal gave him the strength to travel forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.


The flood engulfed the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark and raised it above the earth.


"Seventy weeks have been determined concerning your people and your holy city to put an end to rebellion, to bring sin to completion, to atone for iniquity, to bring in perpetual righteousness, to seal up the prophetic vision, and to anoint a most holy place.


At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window he had made in the ark


"When you have completed these days, then lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days -- I have assigned one day for each year.


After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him two by two into every town and place where he himself was about to go.


When Jonah began to enter the city one day's walk, he announced, "At the end of forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!"


To the same apostles also, after his suffering, he presented himself alive with many convincing proofs. He was seen by them over a forty-day period and spoke about matters concerning the kingdom of God.




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