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II, 50-56.
THE CHAPTER OF THE HEIFER.
may be grateful. [50] And when we gave Moses the Scriptures and the Discrimination ; perhaps ye will be guided. When Moses said to his people, 'O my people! Ye have wronged yourselves in taking this calf; repent unto your Creator and kill each other? ; that will be better for you in your Creator's eyes ; and He turned unto you, for He is the compassionate one easily turned.' And when ye said to Moses, 'O Moses! we will not believe in thee until we see God manifestly, and the thunderbolt caught you while ye yet looked on. Then we raised you up after your death ; perhaps ye may be grateful. And we overshadowed you with the cloud, and sent down the manna and the quails; 'Eat of the good things we have given you.' They did not wrong us, but it was themselves they were wronging. [55] And when we said, 'Enter this city? and eat therefrom as plentifully as ye wish; and enter the gate worshipping and say 'hittatuns. So will we pardon you your sins and give increase unto those who do well.
But those who did wrong changed it for another 4 word than that which was said to them: and we sent down upon those who did wrong, wrath from heaven for that they had so sinned.
1 Cf. Exodus xxxii. 24, 26, 27.
* According to some commentators, Jerusalem; and according to others, Jericho.
s The word means Remission, or laying down the burden (of sins).
• Some say the expression they used was habbah fi sha'hîrah, a grain in an ear of barley,' the idea being apparently suggested by the similarity between the words 'hittah, as given above, and hintah, “a grain of wheat. The commentators add that they crept in in an indecent posture instead of entering reverently as they were bidden.
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