the men who were present, and terrified them; and they performed a great enchantment. (118) And we spake by revelation unto Moses, saying, Throw down thy rod. And behold, it swallowed up the rods which they had caused falsely to appear changed into serpents. (119) Wherefore the truth was confirmed, and that which they had wrought vanished. (120) And Pharaoh and his magicians were overcome there, and were rendered contemptible. (121) And the magicians prostrated themselves, worshipping; (122) and they said, We believe in the LORD of all creatures, (123) the LORD of Moses and Aaron. (124) Pharaoh

them certain chemicals, filling their sticks with quicksilver, which, under the heat of the sun, or, according to others, the heat of fires previously kindled under the place where they were thrown, made them curl up and intertwine so as to appear at a distance like real serpents. The number of rods and ropes thus changed into the appearance of serpents is said to have been forty thousand.

(118) Behold, it swallowed up, &c. "The expositors add, that when this serpent had swallowed up all the rods and cords, he made directly towards the assembly, and put them into so great a terror that they fled, and a considerable number were killed in the crowd: then Moses took it up, and it became a rod in his hand as before. Whereupon the magicians declared that it could be no enchantment, because in such case their rods and cords would not have disappeared."-Sale, Baidhawi.

(120) Were rendered contemptible. Rodwell translates drew back humiliated, which agrees with the Urdú and Persian translations, which have it they returned disgraced.

(121) The magicians prostrated, &c. "It seems probable that all the magicians were not converted by this miracle, for some writers introduce Sadúr and Ghadúr only acknowledging Moses's miracle to be wrought by the power of God. These two, they say, were brothers, and the sons of a famous magician, then dead; but on their being sent for to court on this occasion, their mother persuaded them to go to their father's tomb to ask his advice. Being come to the tomb, the father answered their call, and when they had acquainted him with the affair, he told them that they should inform themselves whether the rod of which they spoke became a serpent while its masters slept, or only when they were awake; for, said he, enchantments have no effect while the enchanter is asleep, and therefore, if it be otherwise in this case, you may be assured that they act by a divine power. These two magicians then, arriving at the capital of Egypt, on inquiry found to their great astonishment that when Moses and Aaron went to rest their rod became a serpent, and guarded them while they slept. And this was the first step towards their conversion."-Sale, Baidhawi, Tafsir-i-Raufi.

said, Have ye believed on him before I have given you permission? Verily this is a plot which ye have contrived in the city, that ye might cast forth from thence the inhabitants thereof. But ye shall surely know that I am your master; (125) for I will cause your hands and your feet to be cut off on the opposite sides, then I will cause you all to be crucified. (126) The magicians answered, We shall certainly return unto our LORD in the next life; (127) for thou takest vengeance on us only because we have believed in the signs of our LORD when they have come unto us. O LORD, pour on us patience, and cause us to die Muslims.

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|| (128) And the chiefs of Pharaoh's people said, Wilt R 15. thou let Moses and his people go, that they may act corruptly in the earth, and leave thee and thy gods? Pharaoh

(124) Permission. Abdul Qadir says Pharaoh professed to be a god, and caused images of himself to be worshipped by the people.

A plot, i.e., "This is a confederacy between you and Moses, entered into before ye left the city to go to the place of appointment, to turn out the Copts, or native Egyptians, and establish the Israelites in their stead."-Sale, Baidhúwi.

(125) On the punishments said here to have been threatened by Pharaoh, see chap. v. 37, 38, 42-44. There is undoubtedly an anachronism in this passage.

(127) Cause us to die Muslims. "Some think these converted magicians were executed accordingly; but others deny it, and say that the king was not able to put them to death; insisting on these words of the Qurán (chap. xxviii. 35), You two, and they who follow you, shall overcome."-Sale, Baidhawi.

This passage teaches that Islám is the one only true religion, the religion of Moses, and therefore the religion of the Pentateuch. The Quran here again points to the reasons for its own rejection. See note on chap. ii. 136.

(128) Leave thee and thy gods. "Some of the commentators, from certain impious expressions of this prince recorded in the Qurán (chap. xxvi. 28; xxviii. 38), whereby he sets up himself as the only god of his subjects, suppose that he was the object of their worship, and therefore instead of álihataká, thy gods, read iláhataka, thy worship."

See above, on ver. 124. Pharaoh, says the Tafsir-i-Raufi, worshipped the stars, calling the images of himself, used by the people, little gods, and himself the great god. Much of this kind of comment is due to the manifest inconsistency of the Quran in representing Pharaoh sometimes as an idolater (note the expression "thy gods,' here and chap. x. 79), and at other times as claiming to be the only

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answered, We will cause their male children to be slain, and we will suffer their females to live; and by that means we shall prevail over them. (129) Moses said unto his people, Ask assistance of GOD and suffer patiently: for the earth is God's; he giveth it for an inheritance unto such of his servants as he pleaseth; and the prosperous end shall be unto those who fear him. (130) They answered, We have been afflicted by having our male children slain before thou camest unto us, and also since thou hast come unto us. Moses said, Peradventure it may happen that our LORD will destroy your enemy, and will cause you to succeed him in the earth, that he may see how ye will act therein.

|| (131) And we formerly punished the people of Pharaoh with dearth and scarcity of fruits, that they might be warned. (132) Yet when good happened unto them,

God. This error may have arisen out of a mistaken apprehension of the use of the word god. See Exod. vii. 1.

Male children to be slain. This is an anachronism, but the commentators reconcile this statement with history by saying, as given by Sale, "We will continue to make use of the same cruel policy to keep the Israelites in subjection as we have hitherto done." But the form of words in the original obliges us to regard this as a new order, and there is not a word in the Qurán to justify the statement of of Abdul Qadir that "this practice, which had been ordered before and afterwards discontinued, was here again inaugurated." Certainly there is nothing in history to substantiate such a statement. It is simply a device to reconcile the Qurán with history.

We shall prevail. "The commentators say that Pharaoh came to this resolution because he had either been admonished in a dream, or by the astrologers or divines, that one of that nation should subvert his kingdom."-Sale, Baidhawi, Jalaluddin.

(129) The earth is God's. The Tafsir-i-Raufi says that Moses here predicts that the children of Israel should possess the land of Egypt. See below on ver. 137.

(130) Your enemy, i.e., Pharaoh. (131) Death and famine. The allusion is to the seven years' famine under the Pharaoh who domiciled the children of Israel in Egypt. This Pharaoh is here identified with the Pharaoh of Quranic celebrity! This famine was inflicted as a warning, which, being unheeded, was followed by the plagues of ver. 134.

(132) Unto them. The context proves beyond doubt that the persons referred to here are the Egyptians, but the murmurings described belong to Israel in the desert.

they said, This is owing unto us; but if evil befell them, they attributed the same to the ill-luck of Moses, and those who were with him. Was not their ill-luck with GOD? But most of them knew it not. (133) And they said unto Moses, Whatever sign thou show unto us, to enchant us therewith, we will not believe on thee. (134) Wherefore we sent upon them a flood, and locusts, and lice, and frogs and blood; distinct miracles: but they behaved proudly, and became a wicked people. (135) And when the plague

Ill-luck. "The original word properly signifies to take an ominous and sinister presage of any future event, from the flight of birds, or the like."-Sale.

(133) We will not believe on thee. Muhammad undoubtedly thought that Moses was sent to the Egyptians to call them to repentance, as well as to deliver Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. He thought of him as a prophet of Egypt, as he thought of himself as the prophet of Arabia. Moses is here rejected, and the Egyptians refuse to become Muslims. The children of Israel, and all who believe in Moses, he regards in the light of his own followers seeking an asylum from persecution in Abyssinia, and perhaps Madína.

(134) A flood. Arnold thinks the allusion must be to the deluge, inasmuch as the drowning in the Red Sea occurred after the plagues (Islám and Christianity, p. 140). But the story of Noah, given in this chapter, vers. 60-65, shows that Muhammad did not mean the deluge in speaking of a flood here. We must therefore regard this statement as either an addition to the Jewish story or as referring to the drowning in the Red Sea. Historical accuracy is not one of the virtues of the oracle of Islám, as this chapter abundantly illustrates. Muslim commentators, as Baidhawi, &c., understand a deluge to be meant, and describe it as given in the following from Sale's notes on this passage:"This inundation, they say, was occasioned by unusual rains, which continued eight days together, and the overflowing of the Nile; and not only covered their lands, but came into their houses, and rose as high as their backs and necks; but the children of Israel had no rain in their quarters. As there is no mention of any such miraculous inundation in the Mosaic writings, some have imagined this plague to have been either a pestilence or the smallpox, or some other epidemical distemper. For the word tufán, which is used in this place, and is generally rendered a deluge, may also signify any other universal destruction or mortality."

Lice. Some will have these insects to have been a larger sort of tick; others, the young locusts before they have wings."-Sale, Baidhawi.

The order of the plagues, so far as mentioned here, is exactly the reverse of that in Exodus, but the order here is recognised as the true one by all Muslim authorities.

(135) Plague, i.e., any one of the plagues already mentioned.

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fell on them, they said, O Moses, entreat thy LORD for us, according to that which he hath covenanted with thee; verily if thou take the plague from off us, we will surely believe thee, and we will let the children of Israel go with thee. But when he had taken the plague from off them until the term which God had granted them was expired, behold they broke their promise. (136) Wherefore we took vengeance on them, and drowned them in the Red Sea; because they charged our signs with falsehood, and neglected them. (137) And we caused the people who had been rendered weak to inherit the eastern parts of the earth and the western parts thereof, which we blessed with fertility; and the gracious word of thy LORD was fulfilled on the children of Israel, for that they had endured with patience and we destroyed the structures which Pharaoh and his people had made, and that which they had erected.

(138) And we caused the children of Israel to pass through the sea, and they came unto a people who gave

We will believe thee, i.e., we will acknowledge the true God, and accept thee as his prophet; in other words, we will be Muslims. See notes above on vers. 104, 127, and 133.

We will let the children of Israel go with thee, i.e., to their own country. But see on ver. 133.

They broke their promises. If the conjecture mentioned in note on ver. 95 has any truth in it, there is in this and the following verse an implied warning against unbelief.

(136) Drowned them. See notes on chap. x. 90-92, and xx. 79-81. Because, &c. This statement is a direct contradiction of the teaching of Moses. The Egyptians did not deny the miracles of Moses, but "Pharaoh hardened his heart."

(137) We caused . . . to inherit. The commentators say the reference is to Syria. If so, eastern parts and western refer most probably to the lands on the eastern and western sides of the Jordan. The passage in connection with what follows, however, raises the suspicion that Muhammad here intended us to understand that God gave the Israelites the victory over Pharaoh, and so made them masters of the country on both sides of the Red Sea. See also chap.

xvii. 106.

The structures.

Those mentioned in chap. xxviii. 38, and xl.

"These people some will have to be of the tribe