كَمَثَلِ ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ قَرِيبًا ذَاقُوا۟ وَبَالَ أَمْرِهِمْ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
"Just like those shortly before them: they tasted the evil consequence of their affair; and for them there is a painful punishment as well."
Who is meant? The Qurʾān does not say. In the reports two possibilities are mentioned: another community driven out of Medina earlier (Banū Qaynuqāʿ), or the Meccans defeated at Badr.
The sources differ on this, and there is not enough evidence for a definite preference. Both fit the qualification "recent".
The function of the word, however, is clear independently of who is meant: qarīban — "recently". That is, the example is not given from a distant history; it is given from the addressees' own memory.
This is one of the Qurʾān's ways of giving evidence. When the destruction of distant peoples (ʿĀd, Thamūd) is recounted, the addressee can say "that was another age". When a recent example is given, this escape is closed.
Root: و-ب-ل. And the concrete sense of the root is a kind of rain: وَابِل (wābil) — a heavy downpour with large drops.
This word occurred in Sūrat al-Baqara: "like a smooth rock with soil upon it; a heavy rain strikes it and leaves it bare" (al-Baqara 2/264); and immediately afterwards again, in a positive context (2/265).
The other branch of the root: wabīl is food that is hard to digest, that sits heavily, or unhealthy air. Wabāl is the heavy consequence of an affair.
How do the two senses come together? The common core is weight: large-dropped rain falls heavily, heavy food sits in the stomach, the consequence of an evil deed sits on the back.
And when it is joined with the verb in the verse the picture is completed: ذَاقُوا۟ — "they tasted".
That is, what they did is described as a food, and its consequence as indigestion. The verb (to taste) and the object (the thing that sits heavily) are chosen from the same field.
The Qurʾān often uses the verb "to taste" for punishment, and there is a reason for this: tasting is the most direct and the most personal of the senses. Seeing happens from a distance, hearing happens from a distance; tasting requires contact and cannot be handed over to another.