The Quran

155

Preface

وَاختارَ موسىٰ قَومَهُ سَبعينَ رَجُلًا لِميقاتِنا ۖ فَلَمّا أَخَذَتهُمُ الرَّجفَةُ قالَ رَبِّ لَو شِئتَ أَهلَكتَهُم مِن قَبلُ وَإِيّايَ ۖ أَتُهلِكُنا بِما فَعَلَ السُّفَهاءُ مِنّا ۖ إِن هِيَ إِلّا فِتنَتُكَ تُضِلُّ بِها مَن تَشاءُ وَتَهدي مَن تَشاءُ ۖ أَنتَ وَلِيُّنا فَاغفِر لَنا وَارحَمنا ۖ وَأَنتَ خَيرُ الغافِرينَ

Yusuf Ali

And Moses chose seventy¹ of his people for Our place of meeting: when they were seized with violent quaking,² he prayed: “O my Lord! if it had been Thy will Thou couldst have destroyed, long before, both them and me: wouldst Thou destroy us for the deeds of the foolish ones among us? This is no more than³ Thy trial: by it Thou causest whom Thou wilt to stray,⁴ and Thou leadest whom Thou wilt into the right path. Thou art our Protector: so forgive us and give us Thy mercy; for Thou art the best of those who forgive.

Seventy of the elders were taken up to the Mount, but left at some distance from the place where God spoke to Moses. They were to be silent witnesses, but their faith was not yet complete, and they dared to say to Moses: “We shall never believe in thee until we see God in public” (2:55). They were dazed with thunder and lightning, and might have been destroyed but for God’s mercy on the intercession of Moses.
Rajfah: violent quaking, earthquake. I take it to refer to the same event as is described by the word Sa'iqah in 2:55, the thunder and lightning that shook the mountainside.
Moses was guiltless, but he identifies himself with his whole people, and intercedes with God on their behalf. He recognises that it was a trial, in which some of his people failed to stand the test. Such failure was worthy of punishment. But he pleads for mercy for such as erred from weakness and not from contumacy, and were truly repentant, although all who erred were in their several degrees worthy of punishment.
Cf. 2:26.