2.75 – Are you eager that they should believe you

After the long address to the Sons of Israel and the reminders of their past (vv. 40–74), the Quran addresses the “believers” in order to discuss the Jews (named at vv. 62, 111). This verse introduces a long passage (vv. 75–162) of polemic or controversy between the messenger and his audience. In this passage the Quran switches back and forth between the believers and the Jews, and sometimes addresses the messenger alone. The basic issue seems to be that the “People of the Book” choose not to accept the authority of the messenger or to follow him (see v. 145).

This verse seems to question the behavior of the Jews at the time of the first recitation of these words on the basis of the behavior of the Sons of Israel in the distant past.

2.75 – a group of them has already heard the word of God, (and) then altered it

This is the first of four verses in the Quran that contain the Arabic verb ḥarrafa – often translated as “change” or “distort” but understood by the earliest Muslim commentators on the Quran to mean “tampering with” or “mishandling” (also 4.46; 5.13; 5.41).

In this case, the object of the verb is the speech (kalām) of Allah. The context of the verse – coming just after the long story about Moses – seems to influence its interpretation. Early Muslim commentators understood this verse to mean that some leaders of the Sons of Israel do not faithfully relay the words of God that Moses reports to them.