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Then the evildoers, among them, substituted a saying other than that which had been said to them, and said instead, 'A grain inside a hair' and entered [the town] dragging themselves on their rears; so We sent down upon the evildoers (the replacement of the second person [of the previous verse] with the overt identification in the third person alladhīna zalamū, 'the evildoers', is intended to emphasise the depravity of their action) wrath, a punishment of plague, from the heaven for their wickedness, for deviating from obedience, and within a very short period of time just under seventy thousand of them were dead.