The young men who had grown up with him said, “So you should speak to the people who have spoken to you saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it from us.’ So you will say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!
I was angry with My people; I have polluted My inheritance and given them into your hand. You did not show them mercy; on the aged you have laid your yoke very heavily.
Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke?
They were given authority, not to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man.