However, those who must undergo the “second death” do not have the comfort of a resurrection hope. Theirs is not a sleep. They never awaken from destruction in second death. As this hopeless state keeps hold of them, they are ‘tormented forever’ in the sense of being eternally restrained from having any conscious existence or activity. That their restraint in “second death” is compared to torture by being confined in prison is shown by Jesus in his parable of the ungrateful, merciless slave. Concerning the action his master took against him, Jesus said: “And in his anger the master handed him over to the torturers till he should pay all his debt.” (Matthew 18:34, Jerusalem Bible) The New World Translation shows who these tormentors are by reading: “With that his master, provoked to wrath, delivered him to the jailers [marginal reading: tormentors], until he should pay back all that was owing.”

Just as the death to which humans in general continue to be subject ends all sensations and feeling, so does the “second death.” However, no forgiveness of sins or ransoming is possible for those punished with “second death.” That reproachful state is their lot forever. Memory of them is as rotten.​—Isaiah 66:24; Proverbs 10:7.