The Quran

Preface

۞ وَمِن أَهلِ الكِتابِ مَن إِن تَأمَنهُ بِقِنطارٍ يُؤَدِّهِ إِلَيكَ وَمِنهُم مَن إِن تَأمَنهُ بِدينارٍ لا يُؤَدِّهِ إِلَيكَ إِلّا ما دُمتَ عَلَيهِ قائِمًا ۗ ذٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُم قالوا لَيسَ عَلَينا فِي الأُمِّيّينَ سَبيلٌ وَيَقولونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ الكَذِبَ وَهُم يَعلَمونَ

Yusuf Ali

Among the People of the Book are some who, if entrusted with a hoard of gold¹, will (readily) pay it back; others, who, if entrusted with a single silver coin², will not repay it unless thou constantly stoodest demanding, because, they say, “there is no call on us (to keep faith) with these ignorant (Pagans)³.” but they tell a lie against God, and (well) they know it.

Hoard of gold: qintar: a talent of 1,200 ounces of gold. See 3:14, n. 354. (R).
Silver coin: dinar. In the later Roman Empire, the denarius was a small silver coin. It must have been current in Syria and the markets of Arabia in the time of the Prophet. It was the coin whose name is translated in the English Bible by the word penny. Matt. 22:19; hence the abbreviation of a penny is d(= denarius). The later Arabian coin dinar, coined by the Umayyads, was a gold coin after the pattern of the Byzantine (Roman) denarius aureus and weighed about 66349 grains troy.
Every race imbued with race arrogance resorts to this kind of moral or religious subterfuge. Even if its members are usually honest or just among themselves, they are contemptuous of those outside their circle, and cheat and deceive them without any qualms of conscience. This is a “lie against God”.