THUS, INDEED, have We sent Moses with Our messages unto Pharaoh and his great ones; and he said: "Behold, I am an apostle of the Sustainer of all the worlds!" 46 But when he came to them with Our signs, lo! they laughed at them. 47 And not a sign We showed them, but it was greater than its sister sign; and We seized them with chastisement, that haply they should return. 48 And they said [to Moses], "O magician, invoke for us your Lord by what He has promised you. Indeed, we will be guided." 49 But when We removed from them the affliction, at once they broke their word. 50 And Fir'awn proclaimed among his people, saying: O my people! is not mine the dominion of Misr and witness yonder rivers flowing underneath me? See ye not? 51 "Am I not better than this (Moses), who is a contemptible wretch and can scarcely express himself clearly? 52 Why have no armlets of gold been given him, or angels sent down successively with him' 53 In this way he fooled his people and they obeyed him: they were a rebellious people. 54 When at length they provoked Us, We exacted retribution from them, and We drowned them all. 55 And We made them a precedent and example to the later generations. 56