Wisdom 12:9-11

Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition

⁹ Not that thou wast unable to bring the wicked under the just by war, or by cruel beasts, or with one rough word to destroy them at once:

¹⁰ But executing thy judgments by degrees thou gavest them place of repentance, not being ignorant that they were a wicked generation, and their malice natural, and that their thought could never be changed.

¹¹ For it was a cursed seed from the beginning: neither didst thou for fear of any one give pardon to their sins.