And the nobles of the people of Pharaoh said _unto him_, Wilt thou let Moses and his people go that they may act corruptly in the earth, _by inviting to disobey thee_, and leave thee and thy gods? (_For he had made for them little idols for them to worship, and he said, I am your Lord and their Lord;—and therefore he said, I am your Lord the Most High._) He answered, We will slaughter their male children and will suffer their females to live: and verily we shall prevail over them. _And thus they did unto them; wherefore the children of Israel complained, and_ Moses said unto his people, Seek aid of God, and be patient; for the earth belongeth unto God: He causeth whomsoever He will of His servants to inherit it; and the _prosperous_ end is for those who fear _God_. They replied, We have been afflicted before thou camest unto us and since thou hast come unto us. He said, Perhaps your Lord will destroy your enemy and cause you to succeed [him] in the earth, and He will see how ye will act _therein_.—And We had punished the family of Pharaoh with dearth and with scarcity of fruits, that they might be admonished _and might believe_. But when good betided them, they said, This is ours:—_that is, we deserve it;—and they were not grateful for it_; and if evil befell them, they ascribed it to the ill luck of Moses and those _believers_ who were with him. Nay, their ill luck was only with God: _He brought it upon them_: but the greater number of them know not _this_. And they said _unto Moses_, Whatsoever sign thou bring unto us, to enchant us therewith, we will not believe in thee. _So he uttered an imprecation upon them_, and We sent upon them the flood, _which entered their houses and reached to the throats of the persons sitting, seven days_,[283] and the locusts, _which ate their corn and their fruits_, and the ḳummal, _or grubs, or a kind of tick, which sought after what the locusts had left_, and the frogs, _which filled their houses and their food_, and the blood _in their waters_; distinct signs: but they were proud, _refusing to believe in them_, and were a wicked people. And when the punishment fell upon them, they said, O Moses, supplicate for us thy Lord, according to that which He hath covenanted with thee, _namely that He will withdraw from us the punishment if we believe_: verily, if thou remove from us the punishment, we will assuredly believe thee, and we will assuredly send with thee the children of Israel. But when We removed from them the punishment until a period at which they should arrive, lo, they brake their promise. Wherefore We took vengeance on them, and drowned them in the sea, because they charged our signs with falsehood and were heedless of them. And We caused the people who had been rendered weak, _by being enslaved_, to inherit the eastern parts of the earth and its western parts,[284] which we blessed _with water and trees, (namely Syria)_; and the gracious word of thy Lord was