Overall meaning : Allah Almighty reminds the Children of Israel of the solemn covenant that He made with them, commanding them to worship Him alone, show kindness to parents, relatives, the orphans and the poor and needy, to speak kindly to people, duly perform the prescribed prayers, and pay zakat to those eligible for it, but they broke this covenant which they solemnly promised to keep and turned away from it altogether, except for a few of them who honoured the pledge they made with Him.
He also reminds them of another covenant which He had made them even before that. According to this covenant, which they pledged to keep, they should not shed one another’s blood, nor drive one another from their homes unjustly. They confirmed this covenant and bore witness to its validity and did not deny it at all; however, they did only what they were prohibited to do: They killed one another and expelled one another from their homes and, worse yet, they assisted their enemies against one another, thereby committing sins and violating Allah’s limits.
Although they committed the evil deeds of killing and expulsion—which are both forbidden—if some of them were taken captive in the hands of their enemy, those Jews who had fought them before would offer to ransom them, when it was forbidden for them to expel them from their homes in the first place! Allah strongly disapproves of this, for how could they accept some teachings of the Torah and reject the others? The only fitting punishment of those who commit such abominable deeds, He sternly warns, is humiliation in this world, and the severest punishment in the hereafter. Allah is by no means unaware of whatever you do.
Then He explains that this category of Jews has in fact substituted the transitory joys of the worldly life for the eternal bliss of the hereafter because of their unbelief and for rejecting Allah’s laws, and so the torment they deserve will not be lightened, neither will anyone come to their help.