Ask them (O Muhammad) of the township that was by the sea, how they did break the Sabbath, how their big fish came unto them visibly upon their Sabbath day and on a day when they did not keep Sabbath came they not unto them. Thus did We try them for that they were evil-livers. 163 And whenever some people among them asked [those who tried to restrain the Sabbath-breakers,] "Why do you preach to people whom God is about to destroy or [at least] to chastise with suffering severe?" - the pious ones would answer, "In order to be free from blame before your Sustainer, and that these [transgressors, too,] might become conscious of Him." 164 But when they forgot to remember the warning, We saved those who prohibited evil, but inflicted on the wicked a dreadful punishment -- requital for their disobedience. 165 So when they took pride in that which they had been forbidden, We said unto them: Be ye apes despised and loathed! 166 And remember when your Lord announced the command that till the Day of Resurrection I will certainly send such oppressors against them, who will inflict them with a dreadful punishment; indeed your Lord is swift in meting out punishment; and indeed He is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful. 167 And We divided them throughout the earth into nations. Of them some were righteous, and of them some were otherwise. And We tested them with good [times] and bad that perhaps they would return [to obedience]. 168 Their descendants who inherited the Book gained (by bribery only) worthless things from the worldly life saying, "We shall be forgiven (for what we have done). They would have even doubled such gains if they could have received more. Did they not make a covenant (with God) in the Book not to speak any thing other than the Truth about God and to study its contents well? The life hereafter is much better for the pious ones. Will you not then think? 169 As for those who hold fast to the Book and are steadfast in prayer, We do not waste the wage of the righteous. 170 ۞ And when We raised the Mount (Sinai) above them as if it were a canopy, and they thought that it would fall upon them; “Accept firmly what We have given you, and remember what is in it, so that you may become pious.” 171