(Slay not your children). This verse was revealed about the tribe of Khuza'ah who used to bury their new born daughters alive, and so Allah forbade them from doing so, telling them not bury their daughters alive, (fearing a fall to poverty) for fear of humiliation and poverty, (We shall provide for them) i.e. for your daughters (and for you. Lo! the slaying of them) burying them alive (is great sin) is a tremendous sin which deserves a great punishment.