Wisdom 12:8-10

Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition

⁸ Yet even those thou sparedst as men, and didst send wasps, forerunners of thy host, to destroy them by little and little.

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.