﴿ لَقَدْ أَخَذْنَا مِيثَٰقَ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ وَأَرْسَلْنَآ إِلَيْهِمْ رُسُلًۭا ۖ كُلَّمَا جَآءَهُمْ رَسُولٌۢ بِمَا لَا تَهْوَىٰٓ أَنفُسُهُمْ فَرِيقًۭا كَذَّبُوا۟ وَفَرِيقًۭا يَقْتُلُونَ ﴾

“INDEED, We accepted a solemn pledge from the children of Israel, and We sent apostles unto them; [but] every time an apostle came unto them with anything that was not to their liking, [they rebelled:] to some of them they gave the lie, while others they would slay,”

And We made a covenant with the Children of Israel to believe in God and His messengers and We sent messengers to them. Every time a messenger came to them from among them with what their souls did not desire in the way of truth they denied it; some of them they denied and some of them they slay such as Zachariah and John the use of the present tense yaqtulūn ‘they slay’ instead of the perfect tense qatalū is to narrate past events as if in the present and to conclude in harmony with the end-rhyme of the verses.