Meccan or Medinese, consisting of 9 verses.

Woe (waylun: an expression implying chastisement) to every backbiter, [who is a] slanderer, frequently engaging in backbiting and slander, that is to say, defamation — this was revealed regarding those who slandered the Prophet (s) and the believers, the likes of Umayya b. Khalaf, al-Walīd b. al-Mughīra and others —

who amasses (read jama‘a or jamma‘a) wealth and counts it over, keeping count of it and stores it aside as a provision against the [unforeseeable] calamities of time.

He thinks, in his ignorance, that his wealth will make him immortal, never to die.

Nay! — a repudiation — He will surely be flung (la-yunbadhanna is the response to an omitted oath), that is, he will be hurled down, into the Crusher, that crushes everything that is thrown into it.

And what will show you, [what] will make known to you, what the Crusher is?

[It is] the fire of God, kindled, set ablaze,

which peers over the hearts, to burn them — the pain of which is much more severe than any other because of the delicate nature [of the heart].

Lo! it will be closed in (mu’sada or mūsada) on them (‘alayhim, ‘on them’: the plural pronoun takes into account the [plural] import of kull, ‘every’),

in outstretched (mumaddadatin is an adjective qualifying the preceding [noun, ‘amadin]) columns (read ‘umudin or ‘amadin), and will therefore be inside the columns.