My people have been punished even more than the inhabitants of Sodom, which met a sudden downfall at the hands of God.

Those who died in the war were better off than those who died later, who starved slowly to death, with no food to keep them alive.

You did what you said you would do to us and our rulers. You punished Jerusalem more severely than any other city on earth,

"Of all the nations on earth, you are the only one I have known and cared for. That is what makes your sins so terrible, and that is why I must punish you for them."

For the trouble at that time will be far more terrible than any there has ever been, from the beginning of the world to this very day. Nor will there ever be anything like it again.