And when We said “Enter this city and eat freely therein wherever you will and enter it at the gate prostrating and say “exoneration” and We shall forgive you your transgressions and We shall give more to those who are virtuous.” The children of Israel persisted in neglecting that which they were com- manded to do to the point that they were entrusted to preserve [their] speech but they altered it and they were commanded [to take] a position of prostration upon entering [the city] but they did not. They exposed themselves to the arrows of the unseen and then were not able to with- stand the injury of their strikes lam yuṬīqū l-iṣābata bi-qarʿihā. They were exposed to unexpected punishments and could not hold up to the blows of their impact fa-lam yathbutū ʿinda ṣadamāt waqʿihā.
