For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old.

"When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel.

"After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush.

This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.

But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: 'Did you offer to me slain beasts and sacrifices, forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

For about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.

Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.