Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs
(And when you said: O Moses! We will not endure one kind of food) we will not endure eating just honey and quails; (so pray unto your Lord) ask your Lord (for us that He bring forth for us of that which the earth groweth of its herbs and its cucumbers and its corn and its lentils and its onions. He) i.e. Moses (said: Would you exchange that which is higher) i.e. that which is better and more honourable: honey and quails (for that which is lower) that which is much worse: lentils and onions? (Go down to any city) where you came from; and it is also said that this means any city, (thus you shall get that which you demand) what you have requested is to be found there. (And humiliation) the capitation tax (and wretchedness) the attire of poverty (were stamped upon them) were imposed on them (and they were visited with wrath from Allah) as they deserved to be forsaken by Allah. (That) being forsaken by Allah and visited by humiliation and wretchedness (was because they disbelieved in Allah's revelations) they disbelieved in Muhammad (pbuh) and in the Qur'an (and slew the prophets wrongfully) without any right and for no crime whatsoever. (That) Allah's wrath (was for their disobedience) on the Sabbath (and transgression) slaying the prophets and declaring transgressions to be lawful.
Tafsir Ibn 'Abbas, trans. Mokrane Guezzou
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