4وَقَضَينا إِلىٰ بَني إِسرائيلَ فِي الكِتابِ لَتُفسِدُنَّ فِي الأَرضِ مَرَّتَينِ وَلَتَعلُنَّ عُلُوًّا كَبيرًاMuhammad AsadAnd we made [this] known to the children of Israel through revelation:1 "Twice, indeed, will you spread corruption on earth and will indeed become grossly overbearing!2Lit., "in the revelation" - here evidently used in the generic sense of the word, and probably applying to predictions contained in the Torah (Leviticus xxvi, 14-39 and Deuteronomy xxviii, 15-68) as well as the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, John and Jesus.Since both the Bible and the Qur'an mention that the children of Israel rebelled against the law of God on many occasions, there is every reason to assume that the expression "twice" (marratayn) does not refer to two single instances but, rather, to two distinct, extended periods of their history.