The Quran

Preface

وَإِذ قُلتُم يا موسىٰ لَن نَصبِرَ عَلىٰ طَعامٍ واحِدٍ فَادعُ لَنا رَبَّكَ يُخرِج لَنا مِمّا تُنبِتُ الأَرضُ مِن بَقلِها وَقِثّائِها وَفومِها وَعَدَسِها وَبَصَلِها ۖ قالَ أَتَستَبدِلونَ الَّذي هُوَ أَدنىٰ بِالَّذي هُوَ خَيرٌ ۚ اهبِطوا مِصرًا فَإِنَّ لَكُم ما سَأَلتُم ۗ وَضُرِبَت عَلَيهِمُ الذِّلَّةُ وَالمَسكَنَةُ وَباءوا بِغَضَبٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ ۗ ذٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُم كانوا يَكفُرونَ بِآياتِ اللَّهِ وَيَقتُلونَ النَّبِيّينَ بِغَيرِ الحَقِّ ۗ ذٰلِكَ بِما عَصَوا وَكانوا يَعتَدونَ

Yusuf Ali

And remember ye said: “O Moses! we cannot endure one kind of food (always); so beseech thy Lord for us to produce for us of what the earth groweth, -its potherbs, and cucumbers, Its garlic, lentils, and onions.” He said: “Will ye exchange the better for the worse? Go ye down to any town¹, and ye shall find what ye want!” They were covered with humiliation² and misery; they drew on themselves the wrath of God. This because they went on rejecting the Signs of God and slaying His Messengers without just cause. This because they rebelled and went on transgressing.

The declension of the word Misr in the Arabic text here shows that it is treated as a common noun meaning any town, but this is not conclusive, and the reference may be to the Egypt of Pharaoh. The Tanwin expressing indefiniteness may mean “any Egypt”, i.e., any country as fertile as Egypt. There is here a subtle reminiscence as well as a severe reproach. The rebellious children of Israel murmured at the sameness of the food they got in the desert. They were evidently hankering after the delicacies of the Egypt which they had left, although they should have known that the only thing certain for them in Egypt was their bondage and harsh treatment. Moses’s reproach to them was twofold: (1) Such variety of foods you can get in any town: would you, for their sake, sell your freedom? Is not freedom better than delicate food? (2) In front of the rich Promised Land, which you are reluctant to march to; behind is Egypt, the land of bondage. Which is better? Would you exchange the better for the worse?
From here the argument becomes more general. They got the Promised Land.
But they continued to rebel against God. And their humiliation and misery became a national disaster. They were carried in captivity to Assyria. They were restored under the Persians, bus still remained under the Persian yoke, and they were under the yoke of the Greeks, the Romans, and Arabs. They were scattered all over the earth, and have been a wandering people ever since, because they rejected faith, slew God’s messengers, and went on transgressing.
The slaving of the Prophets begins with the murder of Abel, who was in the ancestry of Israel. The elder sons of Jacob attempted the murder of Joseph when they dropped him into the well, and if he was afterwards rescued by strangers, their blood-guilt was none the less. In later history they attempted to slay Jesus, in as much as they got the Roman Governor to crucify one in his likeness, and they attempted to take the life of Muṣṭafā.
But the moral goes wider than the Children of Israel. It applies to all nations and all individuals. If they are stiff-necked, if they set a greater value on perishable goods than on freedom and eternal salvation, if they break the law of God and resist His grace, their portion must be humiliation and misery in the spiritual world and probably even on this earth if a long view is taken.