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Your immortal spirit is in every one of them,
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and so you gently correct those who sin against you. You remind them of what they are doing, and warn them about it, so that they may abandon their evil ways and put their trust in you, Lord.
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You hated the people who lived in your holy land long ago, because they did horrible things: they practiced magic and conducted unholy worship;
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they killed children without mercy and ate the flesh and blood of human beings. They were initiated into secret rituals
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in which parents murdered their own defenseless children. It was your will for our ancestors to destroy these people,
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so that the land which you consider the most precious of all lands would be a suitable home for your people.
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But even in this you showed mercy toward their enemies, since they were only human beings. You sent hornets ahead of your army, to destroy the enemy gradually.
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You could have allowed the righteous to destroy those ungodly people in battle; you could have wiped them out immediately with wild animals or with one harsh command.
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But instead, you carried out your sentence gradually, to give them a chance to repent, even though you knew that they came from evil stock, that they had been wicked since birth, and that they would never change their way of thinking.
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