Wisdom 12:1-11

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

12 For your immortal spirit is in all things.
² Therefore you correct little by little those who trespass,
and you remind and warn them of the things through which they sin,
so that they may be freed from wickedness and put their trust in you, O Lord.

³ Those who lived long ago in your holy land
⁴ you hated for their detestable practices,
their works of sorcery and unholy rites,
⁵ their merciless slaughter^[a] of children,
and their sacrificial feasting on human flesh and blood.
These initiates from the midst of a heathen cult,^[b]
6 these parents who murder helpless lives,
you willed to destroy by the hands of our ancestors,
⁷ so that the land most precious of all to you
might receive a worthy colony of the servants^[c] of God.
⁸ But even these you spared, since they were but mortals,
and sent wasps^[d] as forerunners of your army
to destroy them little by little,
⁹ though you were not unable to give the ungodly into the hands of the righteous in battle,
or to destroy them at one blow by dread wild animals or your stern word.
¹⁰ But judging them little by little you gave them an opportunity to repent,
though you were not unaware that their origin^[e] was evil
and their wickedness inborn,
and that their way of thinking would never change.
¹¹ For they were an accursed race from the beginning,
and it was not through fear of anyone that you left them unpunished for their sins.