And when this was the place to ask what their response to this was - the clear matter that there is no doubt about it - it was said: ﴿They said﴾ with rudeness and rigidity: ﴿We will not depart from it﴾ meaning from this calf ﴿remaining﴾ meaning abiding, turning around, gathering. And if we are fought over that ﴿until Moses returns to us﴾, he defended them. They understood this, and most of them had gone astray. So there was no one with him who could strengthen them. He feared that he would struggle against the disbelievers with them, and that would not benefit anything, and he would kill some of them, and others from his closest relatives would rise against him, resulting in a division among the Children of Israel, making it difficult to gather their scattered parts and to remedy their calamities. They had already led astray the return [by the return of] Moses, peace be upon him, although he did not command him to struggle against those who had gone astray. Rather, he said to him: ﴿And set things right and do not follow the way of the corrupt﴾ [Al-A'raf: 142]. So he saw from the reform the necessity of distancing himself from them until he comes.