34فَأَصابَهُم سَيِّئَاتُ ما عَمِلوا وَحاقَ بِهِم ما كانوا بِهِ يَستَهزِئونَMuhammad Asadfor all the evil that they had done fell [back] upon them, and they were overwhelmed by the very thing which they had been wont to deride.1See 6:10 and the corresponding note. Similar phrases occur in many places in the Qur'an, always with reference to a derision of divine messages and, particularly, of predictions relating to God's chastisement of reprobate sinners. As so often, the Qur'an points out here that this "chastisement" or "suffering" ('adhab) is but a natural, unavoidable consequence of deliberate wrongdoing: hence, he who becomes guilty of it is, in reality, "doing wrong to himself" or "sinning against himself" inasmuch as he destroys his own spiritual integrity and must subsequently suffer for it.