and spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men saying, “I will make your yoke heavy—I will make it even heavier. My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions.”
“But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them. Do not fear their words, though thistles and thorns are beside you and you sit among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or be dismayed by their looks—for they are a rebellious house.
And they were permitted not to kill them, but to torment them for five months—and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a person.