وَإِذْ قُلْتُمْ يَا مُوسَى لَن نَّصْبِرَ عَلَىَ طَعَامٍ وَاحِدٍ فَادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُخْرِجْ لَنَا مِمَّا تُنبِتُ الأَرْضُ مِن بَقْلِهَا وَقِثَّآئِهَا وَفُومِهَا وَعَدَسِهَا وَبَصَلِهَا قَالَ أَتَسْتَبْدِلُونَ الَّذِي هُوَ أَدْنَى بِالَّذِي هُوَ خَيْرٌ اهْبِطُواْ مِصْراً فَإِنَّ لَكُم مَّا سَأَلْتُمْ وَضُرِبَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الذِّلَّةُ وَالْمَسْكَنَةُ وَبَآؤُوْاْ بِغَضَبٍ مِّنَ اللَّهِ ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ كَانُواْ يَكْفُرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَيَقْتُلُونَ النَّبِيِّينَ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ ذَلِكَ بِمَا عَصَواْ وَّكَانُواْ يَعْتَدُونَ

61. And (remember the time) when you said: "Moses, we will no longer be able to endure one sort of food. Pray for us to your Lord, that He may bring forth for us of all that the soil produces – its green herbs, and its cucumbers, and its corn, and its lentils, and its onions." He (Moses) responded: "Would you have in exchange what is meaner for what is better? Get you down to Egypt (or some city); surely there is for you there what you ask for."⁷²So, in the end, ignominy and misery were pitched upon them, and they earned wrath (a humiliating punishment) from God. That was because they were persistently disbelieving in Our Revelations and rejecting Our signs (despite continuously observing them in their lives), and killing the Prophets against all right and truth. That was because they disobeyed and kept on exceeding the bounds (of the Law).⁷³

72. “Egypt (or some city)” translates misr , which can mean either. It might be a city that the Children of Israel passed on the way to Palestine, or it might be Egypt, which they had left. Their demand indicates that they still felt longing for their life in Egypt and it was also a sign of ignobility of character. That is why Moses might have meant in a satirically warning manner, “Get you down to Egypt, where there was what you ask for, and return to your previous life of slavery.”

73. What the Children of Israel asked for was not, in itself, sinful. But by saying “your Lord” instead of “our Lord,” they manifested a sign of unbelief. Second, as a people on the way to becoming a civilized society under the leadership of a great Messenger, they were expected to make demands required by a civilized life. By drawing attention to the ignominy and misery pitched upon them, and to their crimes, even after they became settled and founded a great kingdom during the reigns of the Prophets David and Solomon, upon them be peace, the Qur'ān illustrates how they relapsed into their character of slavery. In telling of the humiliating punishment they earned from God's wrath, the verse links back to, and interprets, “those who have incurred (Your) wrath” in Sūrat al-Fāti h ah .

Considered in the light of this verse, the Prophetic saying warning the Muslims against the causes of ignominy and misery becomes more apt: “When you let yourselves go into speculative transactions and are occupied with animal-breeding only and content with agriculture and abandon striving in God's cause to preach His religion, God will subject you to such a humiliation that He will not remove it from you until you return to your religion.” (Abū Dāwūd, “Buyū‘,” 54; Ibn Hanbal, 2: 84)

It may serve as a comparison that the apostles of Jesus, upon him be peace, made a similar demand from him, also using the expression, “your Lord.” However, while the Children of Israel demanded what the soil produces, Jesus' apostles demanded a table from heaven. (5: 112)