[And said], "If you do good, you do good for yourselves; and if you do evil, [you do it] to yourselves." Then when the final promise came, [We sent your enemies] to sadden your faces and to enter the temple in Jerusalem, as they entered it the first time, and to destroy what they had taken over with [total] destruction.
Tafseer
وقلنا { إن أحسنتم } بالطاعة { أحسنتم لأنفسكم } لأن ثوابه لها { وإن أسأتم } بالفساد { فلها } إساءتكم { فإذا جاء وعد } المرة { الآخرة } بعثناهم { ليسوءوا وجوهكم } يحزنوكم بالقتل والسبي حزنا يظهر في وجوهكم { وليدخلوا المسجد } بيت المقدس فيخربوه { كما دخلوه } وخربوه { أول مرة وليتبروا } يهلكوا { ما علوْا } غلبوا عليه { تتبيرا } هلاكا وقد أفسدوا ثانيا بقتل يحيى فبعث عليهم بختنصر فقتل منهم ألوفا وسبى ذريتهم وخرب بيت المقدس .
And We said, “If you do good,” by obedience, “you have done good for yourselves,” because its reward is for them. “But if you do evil,” by corruption, “it is for yourselves,” your evil. “Then when the promise comes,” the last time, We will send them, “to disfigure your faces,” to grieve you with killing and captivity, a grief that will be evident on your faces, “and to enter the mosque,” the Holy House, and destroy it, “as they entered it” and destroyed it, “the first time, and to destroy,” “that which they had prevailed over,” “with utter destruction,” and they had corrupted a second time by killing John, so He sent against them Bukhtanasr, who killed thousands of them, took their descendants captive, and destroyed the Holy House.
