The Quran

Preface

۞ وَلَقَد أَخَذَ اللَّهُ ميثاقَ بَني إِسرائيلَ وَبَعَثنا مِنهُمُ اثنَي عَشَرَ نَقيبًا ۖ وَقالَ اللَّهُ إِنّي مَعَكُم ۖ لَئِن أَقَمتُمُ الصَّلاةَ وَآتَيتُمُ الزَّكاةَ وَآمَنتُم بِرُسُلي وَعَزَّرتُموهُم وَأَقرَضتُمُ اللَّهَ قَرضًا حَسَنًا لَأُكَفِّرَنَّ عَنكُم سَيِّئَاتِكُم وَلَأُدخِلَنَّكُم جَنّاتٍ تَجري مِن تَحتِهَا الأَنهارُ ۚ فَمَن كَفَرَ بَعدَ ذٰلِكَ مِنكُم فَقَد ضَلَّ سَواءَ السَّبيلِ

Yusuf Ali

God did aforetime take a covenant from the Children of Israel,¹ and we appointed twelve captains among them. And God said: “I am with you: if ye (but) establish regular prayers, practise regular charity, believe in my messengers, honour and assist them, and loan to God a beautiful loan,² verily I will wipe out from you your evils, and admit you to gardens with rivers flowing beneath; but if any of you, after this, resisteth faith, he hath truly wandered from the path or rectitude.”³

Cf. 2:63 and 78, “Moses . . . called for the elders of the people... and all the people answered together and said, 'All that the Lord hath spoken we will do'.” (Exod. 19:7-8.) This was under the towering height of Mount Sinai. The captains or elders or leaders of the people were selected, one from each of the twelve tribes, (see 2:60 and n. 73). For census purposes the names of the elders of the tribes are given in Num. 1:4-16: they are called “every one the head of the house of his fathers”. Later, twelve other “heads of the Children of Israel” were selected to spy out of the land of Canaan : their names are mentioned in Num. 13:1-16. See also 5:22-29 and notes.
Cf. 2:245, n. 276. The phrase means “spending in the cause of God.” God in His infinite grace looks upon this as a loan, for which He gives a recompense manifold.
The path of rectitude: or the even way: see 2:108, n. 109.