What is the interpretation of prioritizing flight over terror in the verse: (hadst thou looked upon them, thou wouldst indeed have turned back from them in flight, and wouldst indeed have been filled with terror of them), and prioritizing speech over approach in the verse: (They said, as they approached them, “What is it you miss?”)?

The letter "waw" (و) denotes absolute conjunction and does not imply chronological order, unlike the letter "fa" (ف) which indicates sequence with immediate succession, and "thumma" (ثم) which indicates sequence with delay. If the intention is to combine, then one must stick to the "waw" and not the "fa," because "waw" signifies combination, while "fa" indicates that the second follows the first. As for the verse: (قَالُواْ وَأَقْبَلُواْ عَلَيْهِم مَّاذَا تَفْقِدُونَ) "They said, as they approached them, 'What is it you miss?'" (Quran 12:71), the "waw" here implies that they spoke while approaching, as a result of their distress.