Al-Isrā’ 17:4

The issue

Verse 4 informs that Allah decreed that the Children of Israel (the Israelites) in the Book (Torah) will do evil “in the earth twice.” When the threat of the first evil came, people “endued with violence” came to the Children of Israel (verse 5).

The Qur’ānic text does not give many details regarding these two instances of evil, so the reader is forced to try to understand the text from the words of Muslim exegetes, who offer a variety of opinions concerning the two times the Children of Israel committed evil in the earth. The following outline lists some of many extensive opinions given by Islamic commentators to explain this text:

First Opinion

When the Children of Israel called Jeremiah a liar and assaulted him, God brought his anger against them through the armies of Babel that were under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar II the first time. It is also narrated that Allah sent Jālūt (Goliath) against them and he killed them.

Nebuchadnezzar II came a second time and utterly destroyed them.

Second Opinion

Sennacherib, king of Babylon, came with six hundred thousand banners, with one hundred thousand knights under each banner (meaning, a total of sixty billion knights). He came to Jerusalem but Allah destroyed his entire army except for Sennacherib and five of his scribes. Then the Children of Israel forgave Sennacherib, who then returned to Babylon.

Sennacherib died after seven years and was followed by Nebuchadnezzar II. During this time, moral conditions deteriorated in Israel and its people killed their prophet Isaiah. So, Nebuchadnezzar II came and entered Jerusalem and annihilated the Children of Israel.

Third Opinion

After the people of Israel became corrupt and killed their prophets, God set Nebuchadnezzar II against them. Those whom he did not kill, he deported.

The Children of Israel returned to the land of their ancestors, but after a while Jālūt (Goliath) came and annihilated them.

The words of the commentators not only reveal their confusion and struggle to find a solution to explain these two verses but also produce historically incompatible and illogical arguments. For example, Sennacherib is described as the king of Babylon, while historically it is known that he was the king of Assyria. Another explanation mentions that Allah destroyed sixty billion soldiers in the army of Sennacherib, a preposterous feat. Other problems result from the mixing of personalities against historical records, such as placing the encounter with Goliath (Jālūt) after Nebuchadnezzar II.

The Qur’ānic passage here is very ambiguous because it presents what is considered a divine decree of bringing destruction on the Children of Israel but offers no specific details, i.e., who, what, where, when, etc. These omissions led some of the narrations to speak in generalities concerning corruption. An example is the narration in Zamakhsharī’s writings, which states that the first corruption mentioned in the verse is the killing of Zakarīyā (Zechariah) and the imprisonment of Jeremiah and the second corruption is the killing of Yahyā (John the Baptist), son of Zakarīyā, and the plan to kill the Christ.

The commentators offer several incidents and many names. However, this text is still ambiguous despite the many interpretations. Apparently, al-Rāzī arrived at this conclusion:

[K]now that it is not hinged on the purpose of knowing those people specifically but what is intended is that when they multiplied their transgressions, he [Allah] set against them people who killed and annihilated them.