[Aa`raf 7:164] And when a group among them said, "Why do you preach to a people whom Allah is going to destroy or mete out a severe punishment?" They said, "To have an excuse before your Lord, and that perhaps they may fear."

[Aa`raf 7:165] And when they forgot the advices they had been given, We rescued those who forbade evil, and seized the unjust with a dreadful punishment - the recompense of their disobedience.

[Aa`raf 7:166] Consequently when they rebelled against the command to refrain, We said to them, "Be apes, despised!"

[Aa`raf 7:167] 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.

[Aa`raf 7:168] And We divided them in the earth as separate groups; some of them are righteous and some are the other type; and We tested them with good (favours) and evil things (adversities) so that they may return.

[Aa`raf 7:169] And after them in their place, came those unworthy successors who inherited the Books - they accept the goods of this world (as bribes) and say, "We shall soon be forgiven"; and if similar goods come to them again, they would accept it; was not the covenant taken from them in the Book, that they must not relate anything to Allah except the truth, and they have studied it? And indeed the abode of the Hereafter is better for the pious; so do you not have sense?

[Aa`raf 7:170] And those who hold fast to the Book, and kept the prayer established; and We do not waste the wages of the righteous.