And when good fell to their lot they said, “This is our due.” But if ill befel them, they regarded Moses and his partisans as (the birds) of evil omen.²⁶ Yet, was not their evil omen from God? But most of them knew it not.

And they said, “Whatever sign thou bring us for our enchantment, we will not believe on thee.”

And we sent upon them the flood and the locusts and the kummal (lice) and the frogs and the blood,—clear signs²⁷— but they behaved proudly, and were a sinful people.

And when any plague fell upon them, they said, “O Moses! pray for us to thy Lord, according to that which he hath covenanted with thee: Truly if thou take off the plague from us, we will surely believe thee, and will surely send the children of Israel with thee.” But when we had taken off the plague from them, and the time which God had granted them had expired,²⁸ behold! they broke their promise.

Therefore we took vengeance on them and drowned them in the sea, because they treated our signs as falsehoods and were heedless of them.

And we gave to the people who had been brought so low, the eastern and the western lands, which we had blessed as an heritage: and the good word of thy Lord was fulfilled on the children of Israel because they had borne up with patience: and we destroyed the works and the structures of Pharaoh and his people:

And we brought the children of Israel across the sea, and they came to a people who gave themselves up to their idols. They said, “O Moses! make us a god, as they have gods.” He said, “Verily, ye are an ignorant people:

For the worship they practise²⁹ will be destroyed, and that which they do, is vain.”

He said, “Shall I seek any other god for you than God, when it is He who hath preferred you above all other peoples?”

And remember when we rescued you from the people of Pharaoh they had laid on you a cruel affliction; they slew your sons, and let only your daughters live, and in this was a great trial from your Lord.

And we appointed a meeting with Moses for thirty nights, which we completed with ten other nights, so that his whole time with his Lord³⁰ amounted to forty nights. Then said Moses to his brother Aaron, “Take thou my place among my people, and act rightly, and follow not the way of the corrupt doers.”

And when Moses came at our set time and his Lord spake with him, he said, “O Lord, shew thyself to me, that I may look upon thee.” He said, “Thou shalt not see Me; but look towards the mount, and if it abide firm in its place, then shalt thou see Me.” And when God manifested Himself to the mountain he turned it to dust! and Moses fell in a swoon.

And when he came to himself, he said, “Glory be to thee! To thee do I turn in penitence, and I am the first of them that believe.”

He said, “O Moses! thee above all men have I chosen by my commissions, and by my speaking to thee. Take therefore what I have brought thee, and be one of those who render thanks.

And we wrote for him upon the tables a monition concerning every matter, and said, “Receive them thyself with steadfastness, and command thy people to receive them for the observance of its most goodly precepts:—I will shew you the abode of the wicked.”

The unjustly proud ones of the earth will I turn aside from my signs, for even if they see every sign they will not believe them; and if they see the path of uprightness, they will not take it for their path, but if they see the path of error, for their path will they take it.