God expresses deep frustration over a tragic reality: the suffering He brought upon the people failed to serve its educational purpose, and their response to correction was sheer violence. The divine punishments were ultimately pointless, as they did not lead to the desired outcome of moral improvement. There is a discussion regarding who exactly was meant to learn from these harsh lessons when the younger generation was struck. One perspective suggests that the children themselves were the intended audience, meant to receive correction and abandon the evil behaviors they had practiced since youth [רד״ק, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Conversely, another view argues that the suffering of the children was actually intended to awaken and discipline the parents. However, the parents stubbornly maintained their rebellion and refused to change [מצודת דוד]. Offering a completely different angle, the Sages explain that the punishment was not necessarily useless, but rather stemmed from a specific sin of emptiness: the children perished because their parents made false, empty vows [רד״ק].
The root cause of this failure to accept moral instruction lies in a severe spiritual decline, culminating in the murder of prophets. Instead of listening to words of correction, the people responded with deadly force. The primary approach among commentators is that the victims were God's true prophets, such as Isaiah and Zechariah, who were actively persecuted and killed. This creates a direct link to the earlier tragedy: the younger generation could not possibly receive moral instruction because their parents had murdered the very teachers sent to guide them, leaving a void of spiritual leadership [מלבי״ם]. However, another interpretation suggests that the victims were actually the people's own false prophets. According to this view, the masses turned on and killed their false leaders once they realized that their deceitful promises had only led to ruin [רד״ק בשם אביו]. Regardless of who was killed, the brutality of the act is compared to a wild lion. Just as a beast violently tears apart its prey, the people slaughtered the prophets with ruthless cruelty, destroying them both in body and soul [מצודת דוד, רד״ק].