The Quran

Preface

۞ إِنَّ قارونَ كانَ مِن قَومِ موسىٰ فَبَغىٰ عَلَيهِم ۖ وَآتَيناهُ مِنَ الكُنوزِ ما إِنَّ مَفاتِحَهُ لَتَنوءُ بِالعُصبَةِ أُولِي القُوَّةِ إِذ قالَ لَهُ قَومُهُ لا تَفرَح ۖ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لا يُحِبُّ الفَرِحينَ

Yusuf Ali

Qarun was doubtless,¹ of the people of Moses; but he acted insolently towards them: such were the treasures We² had bestowed on him that their very keys would have been a burden to a body of strong men:³ Behold, his people said to him: “Exult not, for God loveth not those who exult (in riches).

Qarun is identified with the Korah of the English Bible. His story is told in Num. 16:1-35. He and his followers, numbering 250 men, rose in rebellion against Moses and Aaron, on the ground that their position and fame in the congregation entitled them to equality in spiritual matters with the Priests-that they were as holy as any, and they claimed to burn incense at the sacred Altar reserved for the Priests. They had an exemplary punishment: “the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods: they, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.”
Qarun’s boundless wealth is described in the Midrashim, or the Jewish compilations based on the oral teachings of the Synagogues, which however exaggerate the weight of the keys to be the equivalent of the load of 300 mules!
'Usbah: a body of men, here used indefinitely. It usually implies a body of 10 to 40 men. The old-fashioned keys were big and heavy, and if there were hundreds of treasure chests, the keys must have been a great weight. As they were travelling in the desert, the treasures were presumably left behind in Egypt, and only the keys were carried. The disloyal Qarun had left his heart in Egypt, with his treasures.