Surah 20. Ta-Ha, Ayah 60

Lit., "he decided upon his artful scheme" (Jama'a kaydahu): evidently an allusion to his summoning all the greatest sorcerers of Egypt (cf. {7:111-114}).

Pharaoh was apparently taken aback at Moses appointing a solemn day of public Festival, when there would be a large concourse and there would be sure to be some people not in the Court clique, who might be critical of Pharaoh's own sorcerers. But probably there was something more in their dark counsels, something unfair and wicked, to which Moses refers in his speech in the next verse.