The saying of the Exalted and Majestic:

"So woe to those who write the Scripture with their own hands, then say, 'This is from Allah,' to exchange for it a small price. So woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they earn."

"And they said, 'The Fire will not touch us except for a few days.' Say, 'Have you taken a covenant from Allah, so Allah will not break His covenant? Or do you say about Allah what you do not know?'"

"Indeed, whoever earns a sin and his sin surrounds him, those are the companions of the Fire; they will be therein forever."

"And those who believe and do righteous deeds, they are the companions of Paradise; they will be therein forever."

"Those who are referred to in this verse are the scholars and leaders. Al-Khalil said: Woe is the severity of evil. Al-Asma'i said: Woe is the ugliness, and it is a noun that has no verb. It is pluralized as waylat. The best form for it, when it is separated, is the nominative, as it implies occurrence, and the accusative is correct in the meaning of a supplication, meaning Allah has made him deserving of woe.

Woe, woe, woe, and wayb are close in meaning, and some have differentiated between them. Sufyan and Ata' ibn Yasar narrated that woe in this verse is a valley that flows in the vicinity of Hell from the pus of the people of the Fire. Abu Sa'id al-Khudri narrated, 'From the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, that it is a valley in Hell between two mountains, into which the one falling falls for forty autumns.' Abu Iyad said: It is a cistern in Hell. Uthman ibn Affan, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated 'From the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, that it is a mountain from the mountains of the Fire.' Al-Zahrawi narrated from others that it is a gate from the gates of Hell. And those who write are the scholars who altered the Torah, and His saying 'with their own hands' is a clarification of their crime and a confirmation of their openly defying Allah.

And He differentiated between the one who writes and the one who commands, as the one who is responsible for the action is more culpable than the one who is not responsible for it, even if it is an opinion of his. Ibn al-Sarraj said: It is a metaphor indicating that it is from their own accord without it being revealed to them, even if it is not literally in the books of their hands.

And what they altered is the description of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, so they could maintain their leadership and gains. Ibn Ishaq said: His description in the Torah was that he was brown and medium height, but they altered it to be described as tall. Al-Suddi mentioned that they used to write books in which they altered the description of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and sell them to the Bedouins, spreading them among their followers, saying: 'It is from Allah.' The coherence of this verse with the one before it indicates that this writing and alteration is for the illiterate followers who know only what has been recited to them.

And the price is said to be the worldly gain, and it is said to be the bribes and the food that they had. He described it as small either due to its perishability or because it is forbidden. Woe was repeated due to the repetition of the situations for which they deserved it, and 'they earn' means from sins and wrongdoings, and it is said: from the wealth that is implied in the mention of the price.

And His saying, exalted is He, "The Fire will never touch us". Ibn Zayd and others narrated that the reason for it is that the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said to the Jews: "Who are the people of the Fire?" They said: "We are, then you will follow us." He said to them: "You have lied, you know that we will not follow you." Then this verse was revealed. It is said that the reason is that the Jews said: "Indeed, Allah, exalted is He, swore that He would enter them into the Fire for forty days, the number of their worship of the calf," as said by Ibn Abbas, Qatadah, and Ata.

And a group said: The Jews said: "Indeed, in the Torah it is stated that the length of Hell is a journey of forty years, and they will cut through it every day a year, until they complete it and Hell will go away." Ibn Abbas, Mujahid, and Ibn Jurayj also said that they said: "The duration of this world is seven thousand years, and Allah, exalted is He, punishes them for every thousand years one day." And "Did you take" its origin is: "Did you take?" Its form is "Aftaalatumm" from taking. The second hamzah was made easier due to the impossibility of gathering two hamzahs, so it came as "Aytakhadhthum." The yāʾ fluctuated in the inflection, it came as an alif in "Yiatakhidhū" and a wāw in "Mūtakhadhun." So it was replaced with a strong letter, which is the tāʾ, and it was assimilated. When the alif of the confirmation entered this verse, it sufficed for the alif of connection. And the view of Abu Ali is that "Did you take" is from "Takhadha" not from "Akhadha," and this has been mentioned before.

And the people of tafsir said: The covenant from Allah, exalted is He, in this verse is the pledge and the promise. Ibn Abbas and others said: Its meaning is: Did you say there is no deity except Allah, and you believed and obeyed, so you will present that, and you know that you are outside of the Fire? So on this first interpretation, the meaning comes: Did Allah make a covenant with you regarding that which you claim? And on the second interpretation, it comes: Did you present to Allah deeds that necessitate what you claim?

And His saying: "So Allah will never break His covenant" is an interruption during the speech.

'Bala' is a response after denial, equivalent to 'yes' after affirmation. The Kufans said its origin is 'bali,' which is for negation of the first, and the letter 'ya' was added to make the stopping on it better. The 'ya' implies the meaning of affirmation and favor for what comes after it. Sibawayh said it is a particle like 'bal' and others. In this verse, it is a response to the saying of the Children of Israel: 'The Fire will not touch us.' So Allah responded to them and clarified that permanence in the Fire and Paradise is according to disbelief and faith. 'Man' is a conditional in the position of raising by beginning, and 'ulā'ika' is a second beginning, and 'aṣḥāb' is its news. The sentence is the news of the first, and 'fa' is a particle indicating that the sentence is the response to the condition. A group said the 'sayyi'ah' refers to polytheism, as in His saying: 'And whoever comes with a sayyi'ah, their faces will be thrown into the Fire' [An-Naml: 90]. The 'khaṭī'āt' are the major sins. Some said 'khaṭī'atah' in the singular. Others said the 'sayyi'ah' here refers to the major sins and it is in the singular while it indicates the plural since it denotes the type, as in His saying: 'And if you count the favor of Allah' [An-Nahl: 18]. The 'khaṭī'ah' is disbelief, and the term of encompassing strengthens this statement, as it is taken from a wall surrounding something. Al-Rabi' ibn Khaytham, Al-A'mash, Al-Suddi, and others said the meaning of the verse is: he died with sins he did not repent from. Al-Rabi' also said: he died upon his disbelief. Al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Hasan and Al-Suddi said: everything that Allah has threatened with the Fire is the encompassing sin. The permanence in this verse is absolute and eternal for the polytheists, and it is borrowed in the meaning of duration for the sinners. If it is known that it will cease, as it is said: 'A king who is eternal,' and it is called for the king with eternity. His saying, 'And those who believed' indicates that this division shows that His saying: 'Whoever earns a sayyi'ah' is about the disbelievers, not the sinners. This is also indicated by His saying: 'And it encompassed' because the sinner is a believer, so his sin did not encompass him. This is also indicated by the fact that the response was to disbelievers who claimed that the Fire would not touch them except for a few days. They are the ones intended by permanence, and Allah knows best.