Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of The Glorious Koran. An Explanatory Translation (1930)
161. And when it was said unto them: Dwell in this township and eat therefrom whence ye will, and say “Repentance,”1 and enter the gate prostrate; We shall forgive you your sins; We shall increase (reward) for the the right-doers.
162. But those of them who did wrong changed the word which had been told them for another saying, and We sent down upon them wrath from heaven for their wrongdoing.
163. 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.
164. And when a community among them said: Why preach ye to a folk whom Allah is about to destroy and punish with an awful doom, they said: In order to be free from guilt before your Lord, and that haply they may ward off (evil).
165. And when they forgot that whereof they had been reminded, We rescued, those who forbade wrong, and visited those who did wrong with dreadful punishment because they were evil-livers.
166. So when they took pride in that which they had been forbidden, We said unto them: Be ye apes despised and loathed!
167. And (remember) when thy Lord proclaimed that He would raise against them till the Day of Resurrection those who would lay on them a cruel torment. Lo! verily thy Lord is swift in prosecution and loJ verily He is Forgiving, Merciful.
168. And We have sundered them in the earth as (separate) nations. Some of them are righteous, and some far from that. And We have tried them with good things and evil things that haply they might return.
1 Sur. II, v. 58, footnote.
