Wisdom 12:1-9

1 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 of children, and their sacrificial feasting on human flesh and blood. These initiates from the midst of a heathen cult,
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 of God.
8 But even these you spared, since they were but mortals, and sent wasps 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.

Footnotes 4

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.