And when this indicated the utmost weakness from them, it became a matter of astonishment that they refrained from killing them. It clarified that the reason for that is His magnificent command and His overpowering might, urging towards what He concluded with in the previous verse regarding reflection, contemplation, and insight. He said: ﴿And if it were not that Allah had decreed﴾, meaning He mandated a decree that is certain, the King to whom belongs all matters. And it indicated that He decreed humiliation and disgrace by saying: ﴿Upon them﴾, meaning specifically concerning them in what He decreed upon the Children of Israel in the past, just as He decreed upon the Banu Qaynuqa. ﴿Exile﴾, meaning their expulsion from their homes and wandering in the land. As for most of them, Nebuchadnezzar expelled them from the lands of Ash-Sham to Iraq. As for these, Allah protected them by the migration of the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, from that exile and made it at the hands of the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him. He expelled them, so some of them went to Khaybar and some of them to Ash-Sham, time after time. ﴿He would have punished them in this world﴾, meaning with the sword, just as He will do with their relatives from Banu Qurayzah, upon whom He decreed punishment without exile, by killing the fighters and taking captive the offspring. For indeed, He, the Exalted, has decreed a certain decree that He will purify the city, the land of revelation, from them.

And when the estimation was: But He decreed upon them that, so it is their punishment now in this world without a doubt, even if the people of the earth gathered to aid them, He turned to His saying in a mocking manner by expressing with the tool of benefit: ﴿And for them﴾, meaning in any case, whether they were expelled or left alone ﴿in the Hereafter﴾, which is the abode of eternity, ﴿the punishment of the Fire﴾, which is the greatest punishment.