ٱلْمَائِدَة : ٧٠

  • لَقَدۡ Certainly
  • أَخَذۡنَا We took
  • مِيثَٰقَ a Covenant
  • بَنِيٓ (from the) Children
  • إِسۡرَٰٓءِيلَ (of) Israel
  • وَأَرۡسَلۡنَآ and We sent
  • إِلَيۡهِمۡ to them
  • رُسُلٗاۖ Messengers
  • كُلَّمَا Whenever
  • جَآءَهُمۡ came to them
  • رَسُولُۢ any Messenger
  • بِمَا with what
  • لَا not
  • تَهۡوَىٰٓ desired
  • أَنفُسُهُمۡ their souls
  • فَرِيقٗا a group
  • كَذَّبُواْ they denied
  • وَفَرِيقٗا and a group
  • يَقۡتُلُونَ they kill
We had already taken the covenant of the Children of Israel and had sent to them messengers. Whenever there came to them a messenger with what their souls did not desire, a party [of messengers] they denied, and another party they killed.
And We made a covenant with the Israelites, to believe in God and His messengers, and We sent messengers to them. Every time a messenger came to them, from among them, with what their souls did not desire, in the way of truth, they denied it; some, of them, they denied, and some, of them, they slay, such as Zachariah and John (the use of [the present tense] yaqtuloon, 'they slay', instead of [the perfect tense] qataloo is to narrate past events [as if in the present] and to conclude [in harmony with] the end rhyme of the verses).