ٱلْقَصَص : ٢٣

  • وَلَمَّا And when
  • وَرَدَ he came
  • مَآءَ (to the) water
  • مَدۡيَنَ (of) Madyan
  • وَجَدَ he found
  • عَلَيۡهِ on it
  • أُمَّةٗ a group
  • مِّنَ of
  • ٱلنَّاسِ men
  • يَسۡقُونَ watering
  • وَوَجَدَ and he found
  • مِن besides them
  • دُونِهِمُ besides them
  • ٱمۡرَأَتَيۡنِ two women
  • تَذُودَانِۖ keeping back
  • قَالَ He said
  • مَا What
  • خَطۡبُكُمَاۖ (is the) matter with both of you
  • قَالَتَا They said
  • لَا We cannot water
  • نَسۡقِي We cannot water
  • حَتَّىٰ until
  • يُصۡدِرَ take away
  • ٱلرِّعَآءُۖ the shepherds
  • وَأَبُونَا and our father
  • شَيۡخٞ (is) a very old man
  • كَبِيرٞ (is) a very old man
And when he came to the water [i.e., well] of Madyan, he found there a crowd of people watering [their flocks], and he found aside from them two women holding back [their flocks]. He said, "What is your circumstance?" They said, "We do not water until the shepherds dispatch [their flocks]; and our father is an old man."
And when he arrived at the Water of Midian, [the name of] a well therein, he found a group of people there watering, their flocks, and he found, besides them, two women holding back their flock, from the water. He, Moses, said, to the two: 'What is your business?', that is, 'What is the matter with you, that you are not watering?' They said, 'We do not water [our flock] until the shepherds have moved on (ri'aa'u, 'shepherds', the plural of raa'in) that is to say, until they have returned from the watering, for fear of being crushed [by the throng], after which we go to water (a variant reading [for yasdiru, 'move on'] is the 4th form [subjunctive] yusdira, 'to drive away', meaning, until they [the shepherds] have driven their flocks away from the water') and our father is a very old man', unable to [come and] water.