Wisdom 12:1-11

1 For thy immortal spirit is in all things.
2 Therefore thou dost correct little by little those who trespass, and dost remind and warn them of the things wherein they sin, that they may be freed from wickedness and put their trust in thee, O Lord.
3 Those who dwelt of old in thy holy land
4 thou didst hate 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, thou didst will to destroy by the hands of our fathers,
7 that the land most precious of all to thee might receive a worthy colony of the servants of God.
8 But even these thou didst spare, since they were but men, and didst send wasps as forerunners of thy army, to destroy them little by little,
9 though thou wast not unable to give the ungodly into the hands of the righteous in battle, or to destroy them at one blow by dread wild beasts or thy stern word.
10 But judging them little by little thou gavest them a chance to repent, though thou wast not unaware that their origin 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 any one that thou didst leave them unpunished for their sins.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the 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.