[They are] avid listeners to falsehood, devourers of [what is] unlawful. So (5:42)

Almuntakhab Fi Tafsir Alquran Alkarim

Attentive hearers to falsehood as they are, they are also hungry for ill-gotten gain and for eating people out of their property. Should they come to you seeking your judgement on certain points in dispute or on two notions whether or not they can be reconciled, then you may accept to judge between them or you may decline if you prefer. If you decline, they shall not touch you and you shall be out of harms way. But should you accept sitting in judgement, then judge between them in equity, for Allah likes those who recourse to general principles of justice

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(5:42) They are listeners of falsehood and greedy devourers of unlawful earnings. *69 If they come to you you may either judge between them or turn away from them. And were you to turn away from them they shall not be able to harm you; and were you to judge between them judge with justice. Surely Allah loves the just. *70

[They are] avid listeners to falsehood, devourers of [what is] unlawful. So meaning

*69). Here pointed reference is made to judges and jurisconsults who accept false evidence and invent reports in order to issue verdicts contrary to justice and in favour of either those who bribe them or with whom their illegitimate interests lie.
*70). Until then the Jews had not become full-fledged subjects of the Islamic state. Their relations with that state were based on agreements according to which the Jews were to enjoy internal autonomy, and their disputes were to be decided by their own judges and in accordance with their own laws. They were not legally bound to place their disputes either before the Prophet (peace be on him) for adjudication or before the judges appointed by him. But in cases where it appeared against their interests to have their disputes judged according to their own religious law they approached the Prophet (peace be on him) in the hope that the Prophet might have a different ruling.
The particular case referred to here was that of a woman belonging to a respectable family, who was found to be involved in an unlawful sexual relationship with a man. The punishment for this in the Torah was that both be stoned to death (see Deuteronomy 22: 23-4). But the Jews did not want to enforce this punishment. Hence they deliberated among themselves and decided to put the case before the Prophet (peace be on him), with the reservation that his judgement be accepted only if it was other than stoning. The Prophet (peace be on him) decided that the punishment should, in fact, be stoning. When the Jews declined to accept the judgement, the Prophet (peace be on him) asked their rabbis what punishment had been prescribed for such a case in their religion. They replied that it was to strike the culprit with lashes, to blacken the face and to make the person concerned ride on a donkey. The Prophet (peace be on him) asked them under oath if the Torah had indeed prescribed that as punishment for adultery committed by married men and women. They repeated the same false reply. However, one of them called Ibn Sawriya who, according to the Jews themselves, was the greatest living scholar of the Torah at that time, kept silent. The Prophet (peace be on him) asked him to state on oath in the name of God, Who had emancipated them from Pharaoh and had given them the Law, whether the punishment for adultery provided for in the Torah was what they had mentioned. He replied: 'Had you not put me under such a heavy oath, I would not have volunteered the correct information. The fact is that the prescribed punishment for adultery is indeed stoning, but when adultery became common among us our rulers adopted the rule that when respectable people committed adultery they were left unpunished, whereas when ordinary people were convicted they were punished by stoning. Later on when this caused resentment among the common people we altered the law of the Torah and adopted the rule that adulterers and adulteresses would be lashed, their faces would be blackened, and they would be made to ride on donkeys, seated in a backward-looking position.' This left the Jews with nothing to say and the adulterer and adulteress were, in accordance with the order of the Prophet (peace be on him), stoned to death. (Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, vol. 3, pp. 574-5 - Ed.)
 

[They are] avid listeners to falsehood, devourers of [what is] unlawful. So meaning in Urdu

یہ جھوٹ سننے والے اور حرام کے مال کھانے والے ہیں، لہٰذا اگر یہ تمہارے پاس (اپنے مقدمات لے کر) آئیں تو تمہیں اختیار دیا جاتا ہے کہ چاہو ان کا فیصلہ کرو ورنہ انکار کر دو انکار کر دو تو یہ تمہارا کچھ بگاڑ نہیں سکتے، اور فیصلہ کرو تو پھر ٹھیک ٹھیک انصاف کے ساتھ کرو کہ اللہ انصاف کرنے والوں کو پسند کرتا ہے