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 bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices, during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed.

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

All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.

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.

This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.

And when the governor had nodded to him to speak, Paul replied: “Knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defense.

Now after several years I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings.

When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. And desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.

He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him,

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you,

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows.

Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.

Paul Accepted by the Apostles

Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.

This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.

You observe days and months and seasons and years!

Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband,

like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”

where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.

And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The Thousand Years

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.