_Remember_, [O children of Israel,] when Moses said unto his people (_when one of them had been slain, whose murderer was not known, and they asked him to beg God that He would discover him to them, wherefore he supplicated Him_), Verily God commandeth you to sacrifice a cow. They said, Dost thou make a jest of us? He said, I beg God to preserve me from being _one_ of the foolish. _So when they knew that he decidedly intended_ [what he had ordered], they said, Supplicate for us thy Lord, that He may manifest to us what she is; _that is, what is her age_. _Moses_ replied, He saith, She is a cow neither old nor young; _but_ of a middle age, between those _two_: therefore do as ye are commanded. They said, Supplicate for us thy Lord, that He may manifest to us what is her colour. He replied, He saith, She is a red[303] cow: her colour is very bright: she rejoiceth the beholders. They said, Supplicate for us thy Lord, that He may manifest to us what she is, _whether she be a pasturing or a working cow_; for cows _of the description mentioned_ are to us like one another; and we, if God please, shall indeed be rightly directed _to her_. (_In a tradition it is said, Had they not said, ‘If God please,’—she had not ever been manifested to them._) He replied, He saith, She is a cow not subdued _by work_ that plougheth the ground, nor doth she water the field: [she is] free _from defects and the marks of work_; there is no colour in her different from the rest of her colour. They said, Now thou hast brought the truth. _And they sought her, and found her in the possession of the young man who acted piously towards his mother, and they bought her for as much gold as her hide would contain._[304] Then they sacrificed her; but they were near to leaving it undone, on _account of the greatness of her price_. (_And in a tradition it is said, Had they sacrificed any cow whatever, He had satisfied them: but they acted hardly towards themselves; so God acted hardly towards them._) And when ye slew a soul, and contended together respecting it, (and God brought forth [to light] that which ye did conceal—_this is the beginning of the story_ [and was the occasion of the order to sacrifice this particular cow,]) We said, Strike him (_that is, the slain person_) with part of her. _So he was struck with her tongue, or the root of her tail, or, as some say, with her right thigh; whereupon he came to life, and said, Such-a-one and such-a-one slew me,—to the two sons of his uncle. And he died. They two_ [the murderers] _were therefore deprived of the inheritance, and were slain._[305] Thus God raiseth to life the dead, and showeth you His signs (_the proof of His power_), that peradventure ye may understand, _and know that He who is able to raise to life one soul is able to raise to life many souls._ Then your hearts became hard, _O ye Jews, so as not to accept the truth_, after that, and they [were] as stones, or more hard: for of