Note [original edition] : Hast thou not considered those who have changed the grace of
God to
infidelity, &c.] That is, who requite his favours with disobedience and incredulity.
Or, whose ingratitude obliged
God to deprive them of the blessings he had
bestowed on them; as he did the
Meccans, who thought
God had placed them in the
sacred territory, and given them the custody of the
Caaba, and abundant
provision of all necessaries and conveniences of life, and had also honoured
them by the mission of
Mohammed, yet in return for all this became obstinate
unbelievers, and persecuted his apostle; for which they were not only punished
by a famine of seven years, but also by the loss and disgrace they sustained
at
Bedr; so that they who had before been celebrated for their prosperity,
were not stripped of that, and become conspicuous only for their infidelity
1.
If this be the drift of the passage, it could not have been revealed at
Mecca,
as the rest of the chapter is agreed to be; wherefore some suppose this verse
and the next to have been revealed at
Medina.