This was so because they said to those who disdain what God has revealed: "We shall obey you in some things." But God knows their secret intentions well.
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Tafseer
'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (that) reversion to their old religion (is because they) the jews (say unto those who hate) who disbelieve in secret, i.e. the hypocrites (what allah hath revealed) what did allah send with gabriel to muhammad (pbuh): (we will obey you) we will help you, o hypocrites, (in some matters) in the matter of muhammad by saying “there is no deity save allah” if he has the upper hand over us; (and allah knoweth their secret talk) allah knows the secret talk of the jews with the hypocrites.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : that, leading of them astray, is because they said to those who were averse to what god revealed, namely, to the idolaters: ‘we will obey you in some matters’, that is to say, by cooperating to maintain enmity against the prophet (s) and preventing people from participating in the struggle alongside him: they had said as much secretly, but god, exalted be he, exposed it; and god knows their secrets (read asrārahum, as the plural of sirr, ‘a secret’, or isrārahum, ‘their keeping [of things] secret’, as the verbal noun).
