The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 548
CH. 17 BANI ISRĀ'ĪL PT. 15 إِنْ أَحْسَنْتُمْ أَحْسَنْتُمْ لِاَنْفُسِكُمْ * 8. Now, if you do well, you will do well for your own souls; وَإِنْ أَسَأْتُمْ فَلَهَا فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ and if you do evil, it will only الْآخِرَةِ لِيَسُوا وُجُوهَكُمْ وَلِيَدْخُلُوا time for the latter warning go against them. So when the came, We raised a people الْمَسْجِدَ كَمَا دَخَلُوهُ اَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ against you to cover your faces وَلِيُتَبِرُوا مَا عَلَوْا تَثْبِيرًا with grief, and to enter the Mosque as they entered it the first time, and to destroy all that they conquered with destruction. 1937 utter "4:124-125; 6:161; 28:85; 41:47; 99:8-9. the work was not started till the following year (Historians' History of the World, vol. II, p. 126; Jew. Enc. , vol. 7, under Jerusalem, Enc. Bib. , under Cyrus and 2 Chronicles 36:22, 23). The Judean, Sheshbazzar (a Governor under Cyrus) brought back to the Temple vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away and prepared to undertake the work at the expense of the royal purse. A large body of exiles returned to Jerusalem (Ezra 1:3-5). The work of rebuilding the Temple steadily progressed and it was completed in 516 B. C. (Jew. Enc. , vol. 7, under Jerusalem). It is to these events and the subsequent prosperity of the Jews that the verse under comment refers. All this, however, was foretold by Moses long before it came to pass. Says he: And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to 1756 mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the utmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers (Deut. 30:1-5). See also 2:105. 1937. Commentary: This verse speaks of the Jews'