And when the signs of the Hour have become clear, so that there remains no barrier to believing in them except stubbornness, and the context is to threaten those who deny them, he said, expressing in the past: "And those who strove" meaning [they did] the action of the one striving "in Our signs" [meaning] regarding their greatness, "striving to overpower them" meaning exaggerating in their intention to render them ineffective by their failure to fulfill what We increase in their enforcement. And thus is [the meaning of] the reading of the mutual action. And when their sin was great, he indicated with another beginning and said: "Those" [meaning the distant, despicable, and insignificant ones who will not reach their goal by their striving to overpower]. "For them is a punishment" and what a punishment it is! "From a torment" meaning everything that is turmoil, for it necessitates great distress and disturbance, so it is the worst of punishments. "Painful" meaning of intense pain - this was attributed by the group as a description of the torment, and Ibn Kathir and Hafs from Asim raised it as a description of the punishment.