God had made a covenant with the Children of Israel, for what will be mentioned shortly, and We raised up (there is a shift of address away from the third [to the first] person) from among them twelve leaders, from each tribe one leader, to be responsible for his people’s fulfilment of the covenant, as a way of binding them [to it]. And God said, to them: ‘I am with you, helping and assisting. Surely if (la-in, the lām is for oaths) you establish the prayer, and pay the alms, and believe in My messengers and succour them, help them, and lend to God a goodly loan, by expending in His way, I will absolve you of your evil deeds, and I will admit you to gardens underneath which rivers flow. So whoever of you disbelieves after that, covenant, surely he has strayed from the right way’, he has erred from the path to Paradise (al-sawā’ originally means ‘the middle way’). And they broke the covenant.