How God Punishes a Nation

"When God wishes to punish a people or a kingdom, he takes away from it the good and godly teachers and preachers, and bereaves it of wise, gody, and honest rulers and counselors, and brave, upright, and experienced soldiers, and of other good men."
-Martin Luther

"For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,

The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,

The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.

And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them." Isaiah 3:1-3