Now it was almost time for the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles [Note: This was also called "Festival of Shelters," and was one of three principal, annual Jewish festivals and commemorated the occasion of the Israelites living in tents or shelters during their forty year wandering in the desert].

Now the man who was healed was over forty years old.

But when he was about forty years old he felt led to visit his relatives, the Israelites [i.e., called Hebrews at that time].

"Then after [another] forty years passed, an angel appeared to him [one day] out of a flaming bush in the wilderness near Mt. Sinai.

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

But God turned [away from them] and allowed them to worship heavenly bodies [i.e., stars], just as it was written in the prophet [Amos 5:25ff], 'Did you offer me slain animals as sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness, you Israelites?

For about forty years He tenderly cared for them in the wilderness.

And after that the people asked for a king [to rule their nation] so God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, from the [Israelite] tribe of Benjamin, who ruled as king for forty years.

where your forefathers tried me and tested [my patience] when they saw what I did for forty years.

And who was God angry with for forty years? Was it not with those people who sinned, whose bodies fell [dead] in the desert?

But the Jews said, "It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and are you going to rebuild it in three days?"

Then I heard the number of those who were sealed. [It was] one hundred forty-four thousand [in all] from every tribe of the Israelites [Note: This could refer to Christians of Jewish descent].

but do not include the court on the outside of the Temple in your measurements, because it has been given to the [unconverted] Gentiles. And they will trample underfoot the holy city [i.e., Jerusalem ? See 21:10] for forty-two months.

And the beast was given [by the dragon ?] a mouth for making proud claims and [speaking] blasphemous words, and the authority to act for forty-two months [See 11:2; 12:6].

And I looked, and there in front of me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him were one hundred and forty-four thousand persons, with the Lamb's name and His Father's name written on their foreheads.

And they [i.e., the 144,000] were singing a new song in front of God's throne, and in front of the four living beings and the [twenty-four] elders. No one could learn [to sing] this song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand [See 7:4,9] who had been purchased from the earth.