Then He answered: “For the Day of Decision”—[that is,] for judgment among all creatures, one against another, and for each of them to be called individually to account. Then He threatened whoever denies this Day, saying: “Woe on that Day to the deniers!” That is: how great will be their anguish, how severe their punishment, and how evil their final end! Allah informed them and swore it to them, but they did not believe Him, and so they deserved (1) a severe punishment.

(16–19) “Did We not destroy the earlier peoples? * Then We will make the later ones follow them * Thus do We deal with the wicked * Woe on that Day to the deniers!”

That is: Did We not destroy the earlier deniers, and then follow them by destroying those among the later peoples who denied? This has always been His way, in the past and in times to come: every wicked person must inevitably suffer His punishment (2). Why, then, do you not take heed from what you see and hear?

“Woe on that Day to the deniers!”—after they had witnessed the clear signs, punishments, and exemplary chastisements.