And when He, glorified and exalted is He, informed of the permission, it was as if it was said: So we hastened in punishing them for their sins and sent upon them one who inflicted upon them the worst of punishment by killing and captivity. Then He turned to His saying: ﴿And We cut them off﴾ meaning: Because of what happened to them from the captivity resulting from the punishment, by which we have great might, cutting them off greatly by dispersing them ﴿in the land﴾ while they were ﴿nations﴾ following one another. Thus, there became in every town a few of them who had no strength and could not defend themselves against oppression.

And when it was as if it was said: Did they then adhere [after] this punishment to goodness? It was said: No, rather the religions separated them towards the separation of bodies. ﴿Among them are the righteous﴾ meaning: Those who remained steadfast in their religion until the abrogating came to them, so they followed it in obedience to the call of their Book. ﴿And among them are others besides that﴾ meaning: With sin at times and with disbelief at other times. ﴿And We tested them﴾ meaning: We treated them as the tested, so that it may become clear to the people what We know of them. ﴿With good deeds﴾ meaning: The blessings ﴿and with bad deeds﴾ meaning: The punishments ﴿So that perhaps they may return﴾ meaning: So that their state may be like that of one whose return is hoped for, either out of desire or fear.