But This Is The Third Time!
Posted 11/06/2008 - 19:59 by Noel Rude
God’s reputation among the heathen is as one who forsook his people Israel after they had been in the land twice — there is no third time. Here Sura 17 of the Koran is instructive. Let me quote verse 4 (my translation):
وَقَضَيْنَا إِلَىٰ بَنِىۤ إِسْرَاءِيلَ فِي ﭐلْكِتَابِ
waqaḍaynā ʔilâ banī ʔisrāʔīla fī lkitābi
And we (God) foreordained for the children of Israel in the Book,
لَتُفْسِدُنَّ فِي ﭐلْأَرْضِ مَرَّتَيْنِ
latufsidunna fī lʔarḍi marratayni
truly they would be perverted in the land twice,
وَلَتَعْلُنَّ عُلُوًّا كَبِيرًا
walataʕlunna ʕulūwan kabīran
and truly they would rise to a great height (of arrogance).
The following verses go on to enumerate two captivities (which the commentators interpret as [e.g., Yusuf Ali] “(1) the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzer in 586 B.C., when the Jews were carried off into captivity, and (2) the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in A.D. 70, after which the Temple was never re-built.”) and they indicate that Israel’s next chance for mercy was via Islam (verse 8):
عَسَىٰ رَبُّكُمْ أَن يَرْحَمَكُمْ
ʕasâ rabbukum ʔan yarḥamakum
It may be that your Lord will have mercy on you,
وَإِنْ عُدتُّمْ عُدْنَا
waʔin ʕudtum ʕudnā
but if you gave up we gave up
وَجَعَلْنَا جَهَنَّمَ لِلْكَافِرِينَ حَصِيرًا
wajaʕalnā jahannama lilkāfirīna ḥaṣīran
and appointed gehenna and a mat to the unbelievers.
There is no third time in the land. As Ali puts it, “Now we come to the time of our holy Prophet. In spite of all the past, the Jews could still have obtained God’s forgiveness if they had not obstinately rejected the greatest of the Prophets also. If they were to continue in their sins, God’s punishment would also continue to visit them.”
