وَمَكَرُوا۟ وَمَكَرَ ٱللَّهُ ۖ وَٱللَّهُ خَيْرُ ٱلْمَـٰكِرِينَ
Wa makaroo wa makaral laahu wallaahu khairul maakireen
اور وہ (یعنی یہود قتل عیسیٰ کے بارے میں ایک) چال چلے اور خدا بھی (عیسیٰ کو بچانے کے لیے) چال چلا اور خدا خوب چال چلنے والا ہے
They schemed, and God schemed — and God is the best of schemers.
Arabic repeats a single word on purpose here, answering the plotters with their own term; the rhetoricians call this mushākala, shaping the reply to match the wording of the challenge. Classical commentators handled the word carefully, reading makr said of God as the overturning of a plan, since deceit belongs to the plotters alone. What that overturning consisted of arrives in the next verse.