Overall meaning : Allah Almighty exhorts the believers not to entertain the hope that the Jews will ever join them in faith, seeing that they have already heard the Word of Allah before, namely the Torah, and tampered with it even after having understood it well, and they are fully aware they are liars and fabricators. And when they meet the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and his companions, they feign faith by declaring it only with their mouths, but when they meet privately with their fellow Jews, the latter disapprovingly say to them, ‘Why do you inform them that Muhammad exactly fits the description of the prophet who was foretold in the Torah and about the punishments their forefathers had suffered?’ The reason for this is that they do not wish the believers to put forward such an admission as a compelling argument against them before Allah on the Day of Judgement given that they know the truth but have rejected it. ‘If you used a bit of common sense, you would surely understand this matter’ their fellow Jews reproachfully add. Allah Almighty sharply rebukes them for saying this because they know full well that He is fully aware of all that they conceal and all that they disclose.
Allah Almighty then states that some among the Jews are illiterate and have no real knowledge whatsoever of the Torah. They only read it or recite it but without understanding its meaning, and all they know about it is pure surmise and conjecture.
He then sternly warns those Jews who distort the Torah and then claim that it is from Allah thereby seeking worldly gains. These, He warns, will suffer a severe torment for whatever they pervert with their own hands and the for ill-gotten gains they make thereby.
The Almighty further mentions the Jews’ claim to purity—their unfounded claim that the Fire will only touch them for a few days, so Allah commands His Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to ask them if they have made a covenant with Allah and received a promise from Him to this effect. If so, Allah will never break His covenant. Or do they invent falsehoods about Allah and falsely claim they have made such a covenant with them?
Allah Almighty then informs them that the truth is by no means what they wrongly claim. His final judgement is that those who worship others besides Allah and continue to do so until they become encompassed and engulfed by their sins and die in this state without ever repenting of them will be bound to eternal punishment in Hell; conversely, those who believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers and the Last Day and do good deeds will be admitted into Paradise, to abide there for all eternity.