The Heights
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE
[7:124]
most certainly shall I cut off your hands and your feet in great numbers, because of [your] perverseness, and then I shall most certainly crucify you in great numbers, all together!"


* v.124 : The grammatical forms la-uqatti‘anna and la-usallibannakam must be rendered as “most certainly shall I cut off [your hands and feet] in great numbers” and “crucify you in great numbers”: and this indicates that either the repentant sorcerers thus addressed were many or, alternatively, that they had a large following among the people of Egypt. The latter assumption seems to be corroborated by the Biblical reference to the fact that many Egyptians joined the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt: “And a mixed multitude went up also with them” (Exodus xii 38). As regards my rendering of min khilāf as “because of [your] perverseness,” see sūrah 5, note 44 (last sentence).