And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
He ... did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb.
He re-enacted in his own person the leading of Israel through the wilderness. Trial was the essential quality common to both events. The food which the angel brought him, and which lasted for the whole time, corresponded to the manna. Horeb is called the mount of God, in consequence of the solemn manifestations on its summit (cf. Exodus 3:2 with 23, 34: see further, Hengstenberg, 'Pentateuch.' 1:, p. 172). At the same time, considering that the distance from Beer-sheba to mount Horeb is only a journey of eight or nine days, it is very probable that the number 40 should be understood indefinitely for a great length of time (see the notes at Genesis 8:6; Genesis 17:17).