God gave them the TOWRAT, as a book of guidance through their prophet Moses, and said to them not to rely on any other power other than that of their Lord, with whom they had made a covenant; but they ignored God's favor, and broke their promises and became thankless and disobedient! As a matter of fact, they were the offspring of those who were carried in the ARK, with NOAH(A.S). therefore they had every reason to be thankful and godly, if they would only think but they, followed their own passions and caprices, and plunged to ingratitude, idolatry, and sin. They even forgot the sincere devotion of NOAH, and their own godly and virtuous forefathers like; ABRAHAM, JACOB, ISAAX, MOSES and AARON.

Then in the next verse (NO.4) Allah reminds them of two dreadful historical events, which were the outcomes of their own deeds, and afflicted them for their sins and disobedience.

Perhaps the two occasions referred to, are the destruction of the Holy Temple by NEBUCHADNEZZAR, the king of Babylonia; when the Jews were carried into captivity; and when, GENERAL TITUS in 70 A.D destroyed the Temple by fire at the end of his fearful and bloody war with the Jews. For more information, Please refer to translator's note on page 518 volume 3, of this book.

As to the clause of the verse NO.5; We raised against you servants of us usually in Quran the word Servants applies to both, believers and unbelievers. Therefore it might be that they were called here the servants of God in the sense that they were means by which Allah poured His wrath upon the Jews.

In the next verse, No.6, it is said that Allah had His Mercy on the Jews and turned the tide to their benefit by aiding them with children, wealth, and making them numerous.

This might have been their return from captivity about 520 B.C and rebuilt of the Holy Temple. It was when a truthful religious leader of them called NEHEMIAH, could attract the attention and support of Persian King, Artaxerxes; who appointed him as the governor of Jerusalem, with all the needed support and supply. There in Jerusalem; with the help of Ezra, another Jewish high priest, he revived the Jewish community, and established the Biblical Law as the constitution.

The last verse implies that God is needless of our worship and prayer, or whatever we may do good deeds: -

If you did well it is to your own benefit, and if you did evil it is to your own loss.

If anyone does a good deed it will result to his own benefit; Similarly evil deeds will bring evil result. God will never oppress his servants the least. He who does something good will have a good reward, tenfold of that, and he who does something bad will have an equally bad reward for that, and no more than that!  We read in the D 6:160: -

He who does good, will have ten time as much to his credit. But he who does evil will not be recompensed except the like of it, and they will not be oppressed.

Our Good Gracious God, rewards a good deed of man by a multiplication of ten times which is far above merits, but to the evil the punishment is no more than the evil, while the doors of repentance and pardon too is always open!