O Children of Israel, remember My favour wherewith I favoured you and that I have preferred you above all the worlds [Q. 2:47] [and fulfil My covenant, and I shall fulfil your covenant; and have awe of Me]. The Children of Israel are the people of the divine gentleness and the recipients of the favour of guidance and prophethood. He calls to them with gentleness and a reminder of the former favour and the bygone covenant taken from them in the Torah to affirm the unity of the acts after the pre-eternal covenant, which is the way with [one's] beloved after [a period of] estrangement:
Were there not between us ties of kinship and bonds
As well as affection and brotherhood?
This [divine] call is specifically qualified by the affirmation of the unity of [His] attributes that is the lifting of the second veil. It is more specific than the first general call made to remind [them] of the favour of religion and the covenant and the [divine] self-disclosure through the attribute of favour-giver and guardian. The threat against the failure to respond [to this divine call] is made in terms of 'awe' (rahba), which is more specific than fear (khawf); for fear is [the reaction] to punishment, while awe is that to wrath and overwhelming power causing reluctance and becoming veiled from something; apprehension (khashya) is more specific than [awe] because it is specific to the veiling of the essence. God, exalted be He, says: They are apprehensive of their Lord and fear an awful punishment [Q. 13:21]; likewise 'awe' because it is connected to the greatness of the essence.