And had it been Our will [that they should not be free to choose between right and wrong], We could surely have given them a different nature* [and created them as beings rooted] in their places, so that they would not be able to move forward, and could not turn back.]*

Tell those who are bent on denying the truth that if they desist,* all that is past shall be forgiven them; but if they revert [to their wrongdoing], let them remember what happened to the like of them in times gone by.*

Go, then., with thy household while it is yet night, with thyself following them in the rear; and let none of you look back,* but proceed whither you are bidden."

AND LO! [In the course of his wanderings,] Moses said to his servant:* "I shall not give up until I reach the junction of the two seas, even if I [have to] spend untold years [in my quest]!"

and so, [in the end,] We destroyed them [even though they were] of greater might than these:* and the [very] image of those people of old became a thing of the past.