Overall meaning : Allah Almighty addresses His Prophet, Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, saying: Do not be grieved by those who rush headlong into unbelief from among the hypocrites who say with their mouths, ‘We believe,’ but have no faith in their hearts, and from among the Jews who avidly and frequently listen to lies told by their rabbis and follow the orders of others from among the Jews who have turned away from you and do not attend your gatherings out of pride and conceit, and who deliberately and knowingly wrench Allah’s words out of their proper context in order to give them the wrong interpretation and say to their followers, ‘Go for judgment in your disputes to Muhammad. If his judgement suits your desires, accept it; otherwise, beware of accepting it.’
Then He informs the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that if He wills misguidance for someone, he can by no means save him from such misguidance which He has willed for them. As for those Jews whose hearts He does not intend to purify of unbelief for their stubbornly rejecting the truth and accepting only those aspects of it that suit their desires, they will be held up to shame in this world, and in the world to come a grievous punishment awaits them, namely the punishment of Hellfire.
Such Jews, He states, are much given to listening and responding to falsehood and consuming ill-gotten gains. ‘If they come to you for judgement,’ He instructs His Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ‘you may either judge between them or decline to give judgement.’ He also informs him that they cannot harm him in any way if he chooses not to judge between them. But if chooses to act as their judge, then he must judge between them with fairness. Surely Allah loves the just.
Then He says to His Prophet, Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: But how can these Jews make you their judge when they disbelieve you and accuse you of falsehood in the first place, and they have the Torah which contains Allah’s own judgement, which they have rejected and are instead seeking a judgment other than what they already have in the hope it will be according to their own liking?! Surely, they are by no means believers.