42كَذَّبوا بِآياتِنا كُلِّها فَأَخَذناهُم أَخذَ عَزيزٍ مُقتَدِرٍMuhammad Asadthey, too, gave the lie to all Our messages: and thereupon We took them to task as only the Almighty, who determines all things, can take to task.1Lit., "We gripped them with the grip of an almighty...", etc. The special - and concluding - mention of "Pharaoh's folk" is due to the fact that the Egyptians were the most highly developed and powerful nation in the antiquity to which this and the preceding passages refer.