They were killing / slaughtering your sons
يُقَتِّلُونَ أَبْنَآءَكُمْ وَيَسْتَحْيُونَ نِسَآءَكُمْ
yuqattilūna abnāʾakum wa-yastaḥyūna nisāʾakum — they were killing your sons and letting your women live
Two near-identical accounts of the deliverance from Pharaoh's people differ in one verb: 7:141 says يُقَتِّلُونَ "they were killing your sons," while 14:6 says وَيُذَبِّحُونَ "and they were slaughtering your sons." The graphic verb appears in the passage framed as Moses' call to remember and be grateful.
The two verses share almost everything: the deliverance from the people of Pharaoh (أَنجَيْنَٰكُم / أَنجَىٰكُم), the phrase يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوٓءَ ٱلْعَذَابِ, the killing of sons, the sparing of women, and the closing وَفِى ذَٰلِكُم بَلَآءٌ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ عَظِيمٌ. The one substantive difference is the verb for what was done to the sons: 7:141 has يُقَتِّلُونَ, an intensive form of "kill," while 14:6 has وَيُذَبِّحُونَ, "slaughter," with an added و. In 7:141 the verse stands in a second-person list of favors addressed directly to the Israelites, between the rejection of other gods (7:140) and the appointment of Moses (7:142); the killing is described inside the catalogue of what We did for you, as the torment We delivered you from. In 14:6 the same material is placed inside Moses' speech — "Remember Allah's pleasant favor upon you" — and the surrounding verses make gratitude the theme: 14:5 speaks of signs for "every one who greatly endures and is greatly grateful," and 14:7 promises increase for the grateful. There the slaughter of sons is spelled out with the more visceral verb, as part of a remembered favor whose weight the audience is told to recall. The closing بَلَاء clause is identical in both, marking the same event as a test in each setting.
Where it occurs
- 7:141 States the killing of sons and sparing of women — the torment We delivered them from — within a direct second-person list of favors, using يُقَتِّلُونَ.
- 14:6 Repeats the same account inside Moses' command to remember the favor, using وَيُذَبِّحُونَ "slaughtering" instead.
All Qur'anic expressions