Overall meaning : Allah Almighty says to His Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: Mention to the Jews, Muhammad, the time when Moses, peace be upon him, advised the Israelites to remember the favour Allah had bestowed upon them by raising up prophets among them, making them their own masters after having been previously enslaved by Pharaoh and his people and granting them religious and worldly favours which He had not given anyone of their time.
After reminding his people, the Israelites, of Allah’s blessings upon them, Moses, peace be upon him, asked them to fight their enemy and enter and seize the Holy Land—Jerusalem—which Allah had assigned to them and warned them against giving up fighting for Allah’s cause, or else they would become losers in both this world and the hereafter. ‘Moses,’ they said, ‘there are exceedingly powerful people in it. We have no strength to fight them, and we will not enter it as long as they are in it. If they leave it, then we will surely enter it.’ Thereupon two God-fearing and devout men whom Allah had endowed with fortitude, sagacity and certainty of His help, denounced their people’s desisting from fighting for Allah’s cause, saying, ‘Enter upon them through the gate of the Holy Land. Once you are in, victory will be yours. So rely on Allah and put your trust in Him if you are true believers.’
The Israelites, however, did not accept Moses’ advice, repeating that they would by no means enter the Holy Land as long as the mighty people were still in it. ‘If entering this land really concerns you,’ they said to Moses, peace be upon him, ‘then go forth, you and your Lord, and fight its mighty inhabitants and drive them out of it.’
At that point, Moses, peace be upon him, complained to his Lord and apologised about his people’s stubborn disobedience, stating that he could not get anyone to fight except himself and his brother Aaron, and prayed to Him to separate both of them from the sinful, transgressing people. Allah answered his prayer and punished them by forbidding them to enter the Holy Land for forty years, during which time they would be lost and confused, wandering the earth aimlessly and never settling anywhere, and He forbade Moses, peace be upon him, to feel sorrow for them because of the punishment they justly deserved for obstinately disobeying His commands.