(7) And you were three categories.

"And you were" (applies to the present nation and the past nation, as many have held; some have said: it is an address only to the present nation. The apparent meaning, if it is also in the sense of 'became', is: and you became) "three categories" (that is, three types).

Every category that is with another category, in existence or in mention, is a "pair" (zawj). Al-Raghib said: "A zawj (pair) is applied to each of two associates of the male and female in mating animals, and to each of two associates in them and in other things, like a pair of sandals or shoes, and to everything that is paired with another, whether it is its equal or its opposite."

And the saying of the Exalted:...