And when the listener longed for their response, he resumed his mention and said: ﴿They said﴾: [Nothing of that happened.] -

And when the purpose of this entire context was to demonstrate the immense power, he expressed that by saying, narrating from them their acknowledgment of what Moses, peace be upon him, had established regarding their obstinacy, excusing themselves for it by the power. And the excuse by it does not avert the punishment that is due for the sin: ﴿We did not break our promise to you by our own authority﴾ meaning: You have spoken the truth in what you said, but we did not do that while we had control over our affairs - this is according to the reading of the majority with a kasra, and according to the reading of Nafi' and Asim with a fatha, the meaning being: We have a dominion by which we act over ourselves. And according to the reading of Hamzah and Al-Kisai with a damma, as if they said: We have a dominating authority over our affairs - noting that they have mentioned that the three readings are languages for one meaning. He said in the dictionary: He has dominion over him, possessing it in a triple manner: he contained him, able to dominate him, and the meaning is that the Samaritan adorned that for them, and the devil whispered to them, so they did not realize until they had followed him as if they were being led to him by chains. And it was said that this is the speech of one who did not worship him, they excused themselves by saying that they were few, having no power to resist one who worshipped him. And all of this is an indication that He, glorified and exalted is He, is the one who governs hearts. He is capable of turning the disbelievers of Quraysh and the Arabs back after their obstinacy and their persistence and corruption. ﴿But we﴾ were ﴿burdened with burdens﴾ meaning: weights from the two golds, which are the causes of sins, as was previously mentioned in Al-A'raf that Allah commanded them in the Torah to borrow it from the Egyptians, and they corrupted them with it. And it seems that this was a betrayal in that law, or that Allah, glorified and exalted is He, permitted them that specifically regarding the Egyptians ﴿from the adornments of the people﴾ whom we did not know of any people other than them, and others are not truly deserving of this term [upon them -] and they are the Egyptians. So it was decreed for us to cast it into the fire, and the motives for that were abundant to the extent that we could not restrain ourselves ﴿So we cast it, and thus﴾ meaning: it followed that [that it -] was like that throwing. ﴿The Samaritan cast﴾ and he was one who had joined them from the Egyptians, he cast what was with him, either from wealth or from the trace of the Messenger, as has passed and will come, and it seems that his casting was last.