8.9 – I am going to increase you with a thousand angels
This passage (vv. 9–19) seems to give the battle a theological interpretation. The Quran promises Allah’s presence in the battle and the help of a thousand angels (v. 9) to fight the “disbelievers.” Allah commands the angels to “strike above (their) necks, and strike (off) all their fingers” (v. 12). In this way (as the Quran tells the “believers”), “You did not kill them, but Allah killed them” (v. 17). The reason for the killing, according to verse 13, is that the disbelievers “broke with Allah and His messenger.”